G7 leaders take on China and plan to stop new pandemics

The G7 unveiled US-led plans to counter China's infrastructure funding for poorer countries, as well as a new agreement to prevent future pandemics, at its first in-person summit since 2019.

The G7 on Saturday unveiled US-led plans to counter China in infrastructure funding for poorer nations, and a new accord to prevent future pandemics, as the elite group sought to showcase Western unity at its first in-person summit since 2019. Promising to “collectively catalyse” hundreds of billions of infrastructure investment for low- and middle-income countries, the G7 leaders said they would offer a “values-driven, high-standard and transparent” partnership. Their “Build Back Better World” (B3W) project is aimed squarely at competing with China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, which has been widely criticised for saddling small countries with unmanageable debt but has included even G7 member Italy since launching in 2013.