The BRI, The B3W, and Global Gateway

Naseebullah Khan
The world, after the disintegration of the former USSR, has been converted to multipolar, where every mighty power is in a struggle of establishing its hegemony with special reference to the economy. The three gigantic initiatives; the BRI, the B3W, and the current global gateways can be seen in the prism of this context__where competitiveness along with each other encirclement will have prime importance. The potent BRI was initiated in 2013 by China with an investment of 100 billion USD that has expanded to 139 billion USD, which was signed by 140 countries. Whereas, the B3W is a heavy initiative of 400 plus trillion USD of G7 countries. On the other side, in the initiative of the Global gateway, 340 billion USD will be invested. In the BRI, all investment will be committed by China alone, whereas, in the B3W, the G7 countries along with their major corporations will invest. As far as the Global gateway is concerned, the investment will be carried out by the European Union along with its major agencies. Principally, there is no mention of Human rights, climate cooperation, and its alignment with the SDGs and Paris Climate agreement along with the cop26 in the BRI. On the flip side, the B3W and the global gateway will focus on human rights, governance, climate change, rule of law, gender equality and equity, and the SDGs. The timing and phases of all three initiatives are important. The BRI, with special reference to the CPEC, has different phases vis a vis short, medium, and long terms, that will take around decades for completion. So long as, the B3W has set a time frame for completion by 2035, whilst the global gateway’s strategy of completion is 6 years (2021_2027). One thing is for sure, that competition is at its peak and the prime aim of B3W and global gateway is to encounter the BRI. Whereas, all three initiatives aspire to expand their strategic significance and occupy world markets along with political influence. On the other end, the role of the European Union concerning Human rights has been admirable, but not sufficient. Both the B3W members and the members of the global gateway have been reticent on human rights violations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc. On the other side, not to talk of China, as it has even not mentioned the human rights clause in its BRI principles. Economically, the emerging rise of China has been occupying world markets which have diminished the dominance of America and Europe. Since 1980, the global GDP share of G7 has reduced by 80 to 40 pc, whose vacuum has been filled almost by China. In these circumstances, the establishment of initiatives of the B3W and global gateway was obvious. Positive and healthy competitiveness has always been a sign of relief not only for economies but also for the common man. These initiatives are welcome steps for sustainable development provided that these are used positively rather than rivalry, debt trap, political gain, and gimmicks. It would be a real service of humanity, had 10 percent of these multibillion dollars initiatives been reserved for the eradication of poverty.