The writer is associate professor of law at Beijing Foreign Studies University and author of ‘The Law and Governance of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’

Last month, US President Joe Biden asked his G7 counterparts to back a worldwide infrastructure plan to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This marked the beginning of his campaign for international co-operation in the area of high quality infrastructure, which may be viewed as a scaled-up, post Covid-19 version of the Trump-era Blue Dot Network. Nevertheless, Biden’s call produced few concrete results.

The G7 meeting did, however, promise to stop using government funds to finance new international coal power plants by the end of 2021. This commitment should be noted by the BRI, which has been severely criticised for its impact on the environment since its launch in 2013.