China mulling holding Belt and Road International Forum next year

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Chinese President Xi Jinping revealed on Friday that his country was eyeing holding the third high-level Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation next year.

"China will consider holding the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation next year to give new impetus to the development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world," Xi said on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bangkok, Thailand, as quoted by China Central Television.

According to Xi, it is of utmost priority to bolster macroeconomic policy coordination, build tightly-connected regional production and marketing chains, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and finally, boost regional economic integration.

The Belt and Road Forum is an international summit dedicated to the discussion of China's Belt and Road initiative, a 2014, Beijing-pioneered infrastructure plan aimed at improving existing transport corridors and initiating new ones, which would bring together more than 60 nations in Africa, Europe, and Central Asia, increasing and developing trade cooperation among them.

The latest installment would be the first since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing together the heads of new states that expanded the list of countries included in China's initiative.

The Group of Seven announced in June a $600 billion effort to compete with China's formidable Belt and Road Initiative by funding global infrastructure projects in developing countries.

The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, unveiled with fanfare by US President Joe Biden and G7 allies from Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the European Union, aims to fill a massive gap left as China uses its economic power to extend the circle of its international relations across the globe.

Biden stated that the United States would contribute $200 billion, with the rest of the G7 contributing another $400 billion by 2027. According to Biden, funding projects that China currently dominates, such as roads and harbors in far-flung corners of the world, is not "aid or charity," he claimed.

The BRI is expanding to include more South American countries. On the 50th anniversary of China-Argentina diplomatic ties, Argentina formally joined the Belt and Road Initiative.

Prior to Argentina, China and Nicaragua signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January to jointly promote the BRI.

Despite ongoing US meddling, which aims at undermining China's BRI project, analysts assure that the BRI is well-received by South Americans.