Over the past eight years, Chinese President Xi Jinping may have been gradually implementing the “Silk Road” by investing heavily in critical infrastructure such as railways, ports, highways, airports connecting China with the rest of the world, but the EU is promoting its own alternative. geostrategic plan.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the European Alternative Geostrategic Plan-“True Alternative” on Wednesday, December 01, 2021, as a rival to China’s Belt and Road Initiative-BRI, to explain how the EU will try to exert influence along the of the BRI. In this plan, investments of 300 billion euros will be planned, in infrastructures of different countries.
The Commission chief said countries need “trusted partners” to design projects that were sustainable.
The EU is looking at how it can leverage billions of euros, drawn from member states, financial institutions and the private sector. This will largely take the form of guarantees or loans, rather than grants.
Investment in infrastructure and transport is a key battleground for geopolitical influence, as China continues to expand its strategic reach to parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.
Definitely, through the financing of these infrastructures, debt-colonial countries that now belong to China were created, such as Pakistan and Montenegro.
The question is whether with this EU geopolitical plan, the EU will be able to reduce China’s geopolitical and economic power, albeit belatedly. Given that China is perhaps the EU’s most important trading partner, perhaps any initiative and effort on the part of the EU is likely to have little effect.
With China in control of a vast interconnected network of key transport infrastructure across Asia, Europe and Africa, in addition to geopolitical importance, China is gaining control of the supply chain for commodities needed for its development, such as rare land, hydrocarbons, etc., while indirectly supporting its exports.
Given that US-controlled sea routes are in the event of a maritime blockade, China will be economically strangled, making land-based transport infrastructure a much-needed alternative to its survival.
