European Union to challenge Chinese 'Belt and Road' with own global infrastructure plan

European Union foreign ministers agreed to launch a global infrastructure plan linking Europe to the world,

Brussels: European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday (July 12) to launch a global infrastructure plan linking Europe to the world, its latest step after deals with India and Japan, and a similar pledge by the Group of Seven richest democracies. Suspicious of Chinese President Xi Jinping`s Belt and Road Initiative to link Europe to Asia via infrastructure in a bid for greater influence, the EU set out a formal path for an ambitious "connectivity" plan from 2022. "We see China using economic and financial means to increase its political influence everywhere in the world. It`s useless moaning about this, we must offer alternatives," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters at a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.