Photo: Lukas Barth/AFP via Getty Images
The United States will contribute $200 billion over five years to a G7 infrastructure partnership, President Biden announced Sunday.
Driving the news: The G7 countries aim to provide $600 billion by 2027 to the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which seeks to meet the infrastructure needs of low- and middle-income countries.
- The partnership focuses on four areas: health, digital connectivity, gender equality and climate and energy security.
- Under the partnership, the U.S. and its G7 partners are investing in a new industrial-scale vaccine manufacturing facility in Senegal to produce COVID-19 and other vaccines for the region, Biden said.
- Biden also announced that an American company will build a small modular reactor plant in Romania as part of the investment in energy security. Europe's reliance on Russia for energy has been an issue since the country invaded Ukraine.
The big picture: The partnership aims to counter China's development and infrastructure projects around the world, according to Reuters.
What he's saying: "I want to be clear," Biden said Sunday. "This isn't aid or charity. It's an investment that will deliver returns for everyone, including the American people and the people of all our nations."
- "When democracies demonstrate what we can do, all that we have to offer, I have no doubt they will win the competition every time," he added.