more people can be treated earlier and saved lives. the government has accelerated its vaccination program including rolling out mobile units in areas where residents may have difficulty getting to vaccination centers. just to 4 percent of the population has been fully inoculated so far. the government aims to reach heard immunity by december. the slow delivery vaccine supplies and delays by manufacturers may hinder this goal, florence louis out to 0 call importance. many states in india have eased corona virus restrictions, including the capitol deli, boston, new infections dropped to the lowest level in more than 2 months. infections picked in may with about 400000 new cases. a day they dropped to just over 900000 new cases. of monday, but deaths are still high. authorities in delhi have a lot of shops and moles to reopen. ah,

this is all that, these are the top stories president joe biden is renewing the u. s. commitment to nato and marks a major shift from its predecessor, donald trump. during the summit, members of the alliance, toughened distance against russia, and acute china, of being a security challenge. and russia in china, both seeking to drive a wedge in our transatlantic solidarity. we're seeing an increase in malicious cyber activity, but our alliance is still strong foundation. nato stands together. that's how we met every other threatened the past. it's our greatest strength as a meet our challenges of the future and our many and everyone. everyone in that room today understood the shared appreciation quite frankly, that america is back. members of congress in the us of how the moment of silence is

the number of covered 900 deaths. their approaches 600000. the u. s. accounts 15 percent of the worldwide corona virus death toll, but with more than 40 percent of the population fully vaccinated, the death rate has dramatically slowed since january. the u. k. is delaying its plan to ease restrictions in england by amongst the final stage of lifting restrictions was due to be carried out next week. but arise in cases linked to the delta vary in which 1st originated in india. as prompted the government to push back a full reopening, thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes after an explosion that a chemical plant in the u. s. state of illinois and emergency workers in roxanne's say there's no danger to equality at ground level firefighters plan to let the fall continue to burn using water to cause the chemicals to flow into nearby river those the headlines and he's continues here on all. does it after inside story to buy for ramirez and molina families,

the pain is unbearable for of their relatives were killed last week, doing a military operation ordered by the venezuelan government. security forces accused him of being part of a colombian rebel group and said they died and come, but the neighbors and family members and they were innocent, taken from their homes and executed under pressure venezuela's, defense minister by the me said the forces were obliged to defend the country from irregular groups that added that human rights needed to be respected and that the events at the border with be investigated. build a better world without china. the g 7 offers a western rival to beijing signature infrastructure project. a belt and wrote initiative will developing nations benefit and what's really behind this push against china. this is inside story. ah,

hello and welcome to the program. i'm getting navigate on the bill back better. that's the main promise from the 1st g. 7 summit. since the pandemic began leaders of the world, 7 main industrialized nations pledged among many things to tackle climate change and provide cobra, 1900 vaccines to the world's poor. while they also offer developing nations arrival to china's global investment and development strategy, the belt and road initiative basing was singled out in the summer. it's final communicate for a legit human rights violations. in jang and hong kong. b u. s. president says the g 7 is determined to uphold democratic values around the world's. i really feel very strongly. i propose that we have a, a democratic alternative to the belt road initiative to build back better.

and they've agreed to that and that's underway. details with that we agreed to put together committee to do that and come up with that. and thirdly that we're going to assist on high standards ever to be for climate friendly, transparent alternative to the belt road initiative. and, but in the meantime, we're going to move forward with the chinese embassy and the u. k. has responded to the g 7th, communicate and a statement, a spokesperson said it distorted and reversed remarks on jang. hong kong, taiwan deliberately slender, china and arbitrarily interfered in china's internal affairs, as well as exposing the sinister intentions of a few countries such as the united states. now china's presidency of the belt and road initiative in 2013. it involves development and investment projects across asia, europe, and beyond. more than 100 countries signed cooperation agreements with china on

infrastructure projects. the initiative is estimated to include more than $2600.00 projects with a combined value of $3.00 trillion dollars. but china is accused of learning, developing countries into a death trap it to control us through lancaster, 2nd largest port after the country failed to make payments linked to the initiative . and critics also see it as a way of china extending its influence. while beijing says the project connect hundreds of countries and improved transportation networks. ah, that's not bringing our gas. joining us from washington dc is brett brewin, who's a former director of global engagement in the white house under president obama. he's also a former us diplomat. and joining us from cape town is solution i do who's a senior research fellow at the institute for global dialogue. that's the south african think time. thanks very much for speaking to us on inside story, brett, since the announcement of the belt and wrote initiative about 8 years ago,

the g 7 and particularly the americans haven't come up with a concrete plan for that initiative. why do you think they've come up with one now? well, clearly we have seen chinese influences grow, especially across the african continent, south and central asia. it was time as the west needs to be able to offer something more than just, you know, principles and an occasional project. we need a more robust plan. so that's what you saw the beginnings of at this week's g 7. the real question is, can they put more meat on the bone, will this materialize into a massive program or just a, a big ambition? yeah, a lot of questions dylan answered thanks for that. bret sanisha over to you. this initiative was previously talked about by the us president joe biden. but what do you make of the timing of this announcement at the g summit? a good day?

yeah, i think the timing is quite interesting because it's been a very aggressive pushed by president biden, linked back to his domestic policy as well. with the b 3 w initiative announced at the g 7 over the weekend. and i think what's interesting about it is the, the, the tone, the way in which it's being packaged as an initiative, talking about transparent infrastructure programs, pro projects talking about standard norms and values. talking about accountability and also trying to, to, to, to link the program to a kind of a, i don't know. it's very interesting to look at it in the context of dividing the world into democracies in a talk kristi's. and i think again, we're going back to a kind of cold war reduction with these kinds of this kind of rhetoric language. but i have to also say that i agree with brett that we have to see what kind of of flesh is given to this whole kind of a program. i mean, at the moment it's still very much a conception of what's going to happen. and it's not necessarily giving us details

about the amount of money that this program will have. how the funding will be structured, what kind of projects we know the themes around the projects, but in terms of what levels of conditions that will be set with discipline country can actually apply for funds. so it's a kind of re return to the development finance agenda and how the, the, the g 7 in particular the u. s. wants to push forward on this. but at this point in time, i think the details still need to be fleshed out to. so for nurse, are you getting any idea at all of how this project is actually going to be implemented and who's going to come up with the money for the development? they're saying that they'd like to close a 40 trillion dollar infrastructure gap and developing countries by 2035, but still lacking a lot of detail. well, why don't you write one of the, one of the key drivers? the thing for this project is the relationship that the private sector is going to have how the private sector is also going to contribute to these funds,

to the development finance. how this money is going to be rate is going to be raised in, in equity market is going to be bring back development, finance institutions, a kind of alternative to what we are now seeing as an incredible response by the chinese that this is kind of talking about the belt road initiative, and they're kind of funding with regard to the silk road fund and the asia infrastructure investment fund as well. so i think what's important here is how this money is going to come about, where the liquidity lies, where the equity lies. and how does, how this is going to tie in, is it going to be some kind of funding that's also going to be renewing the world bank in these projects as well? so there's a whole lot of uncertainty, but i can say that in terms of how we're going to play out in terms of geostrategic issues in, in africa, which i have more knowledge of. i think it's definitely going to raise different dynamics. i mean, it's going to create more and more divisions more, more dimensions around what level at which these kinds of projects are going to have jo,

strategic interest being played out again in the continent around particular dynamic dynamics with regard to whether it finds the traction around countering to be the belt road initiative, and how that beltran initiative has currently found traction in the content. let me be also here. i think we also trying to understand in africa, watch a belt road initiative projects and how these are, how these are being finance and operationalized in the continent. so i think at this point in time, it's still very much a know looking at this at this initiative and asking ourselves, what does it mean going forward? we don't want to see this kind of a binary kind of approach to, to the way development finance is considered in the continent as well. okay, we'll get on to the issue of geo politics in a moment. you raise a couple of really good points, but brett, let me ask you this will the lack of detail back fire on this project because, you know, some people say will look the belt and road initiative is very clear. a trying to saying you give me money, you were building instruct, infrastructure, excuse me,

you give me money and i'll give you money. so what is the us as a strategy here? well, there certainly is a risk because they are elevating as the expectations. and if they failed to deliver, i think that would certainly undermine confidence in the west, in the united states. so you have to be careful with these things you want to have the big deliverable. you want to be able to add pressure not only to the domestic front, where biden is going to need to find all of this money, but also on your allies. and a lot of those are still open questions. one issue here is that joe biden has laid out a foreign policy, which he says is going to focus squarely on the american worker. and in fact, when they announced the 500000000 doses of fines or vaccines headed to developing countries, he emphasized the fact that it was going to help american workers. that weakness in the belt and road initiative has been that there are so many chinese workers that

are shipped over to these countries to do the project. and i think that is really going to be attention here. if in fact, this is going to not just, you know, install new infrastructure, but it is, is it going to build the human infrastructure across the developing world that is so desperately needed? and joining us on the phone from beijing is on our tank in who's a political analyst and economic development specialist focusing on china. thanks for your time with us on inside story. what is your reaction to this announcement by the g 7 nations of the new initiative? well, it's a little bit empty. i mean, obviously focused on china, but there are really no details. we don't really know what they're going to do with their, their plan. the one the cobra vaccine itself, the donations. unfortunately, that will be a bit late. given that there is no time table that they're looking at maybe next

year or end of the year. right now china is, i think it's 2 weeks ago. they had export to 350000000 doses of vaccine entered into agreements with 8 countries to produce the vaccine. and we're in negotiation with 10 other countries from the announcement that was made to rival beijing's belton road initiative by establishing their own initiative. i mean, are they directly trying to undermine the belt road initiative, or what do you think is behind that? well, obviously it's seen as a competitive issue. the u. s. feels it's behind and then it needs to respond. as you know, the belt road initiative has been in operation for many, many years. at this point, it seems to be an issue that the biden sees it as a threat. otherwise, you wouldn't be responding, but you know,

it's fine to talk about 40 trillion dollars with a needs, but you have to put more out there, then you intend to have a public private partnership goes, i mean, obviously it's, you know, they'll be not reinventing the wheel they'll be doing a lot of similar things that they've done through the i m f and also bank. but you know, it's going to acquire another separate set of your off received. it's going to have to be more implementation. this is going to take time. so it's not clear what it all means or what the time table is, or how will be paid for. because remember, this is depending on a lot of private financing. but that could change dramatically if in fact we do get a recession, you start to see rates, bank rates go up, and people become concerned in and start paying off their loans. well, you know, some people say in our, i'll stick with you for just a moment. some people say that under the us president joe biden,

there's an ongoing attempt to sort of reframe the g 7 as the representative and champion of the democratic world. and the struggle against, i'll talk receipt mean a china. so how much of this is actually also a pushback against beijing when it comes to issues of real concern. for many countries, such as human rights, such as support for taiwan and demands more lately to reveal more about the co with 1900 pandemic. it how it actually started. so new games and a number of issues from beijing point of view. they see a lot of false narratives. they don't, they think they're handling of code 19 was pretty good. there were some problems in the 1st couple of with local officials who didn't understand the complexity or the gravity of what they were involved with. but thereafter, beijing thought that they were very transparent. they tried to cooperate, but they have a sense that they're all their efforts to cooperate are just getting oxygen to a lot of conspiracy theory. they thought that the science had come back and den

apply that. this was, you know, a high probability passthrough from animals, humans. and now we're hearing about this probably in terms of, you know, human rights, things like that. china has its own narrative on this. they believe that they are doing the right thing, both in hong kong to, well, what was the nation's civil unrest that was destroying the tourist economy of hong kong in chin. john, they really do believe that they are making a difference that they're doing the same thing in essence that they did in the rest of china. which is interesting that people be able to speak the common language, which is why that they have access to skills, education, and therefore economic opportunity. so, you know, there's obviously a dueling narratives. a lot of it seems to be ideal logical. from china's perspective they see the u. s. trying to hold on to it's a jeremy against

a rising power. they do not see themselves as a threat to the us, but obviously they think the u. s. ok, bret, how much of this project has to do with pressuring china on issues that i just mentioned in such as human rights and taiwan and the treatment of the weaker muslims. and, well, this actually happened on china. i think this particular infrastructure initiative is less about putting pressure on internal issues in china and more about the external factor will countries, particularly in the developing world cast their lot in with china, where there are autocratic approach to governing or are they going to stay with the west with democracy. that's the, the current ad challenge for the g 7 countries in for others is,

can they win back some of the support that has been waning in obviously what has happened here in the united states over the last several years with our politics is raised a lot of questions in foreign capital as to whether or not washington is a reliable ally. and i think part of what president biden is trying to do is one of the old strategies we used to use in the white house, which is you build a big, bold initiative that is going to out live your time in office, in the hopes that, that will actually get the ball rolling in a direction that will make it more difficult and whomever the next president is to change course. and so i think that's what we're seeing happened right now with this . now it's meant solution over in south africa. how would the country be viewing this? because as brett was just saying, this is not only about sort of confronting china, but about presenting a positive alternative to the world. but the, the b r i is really results of china's relationship with the developing world.

i think it's all africa. you will have 2 or 3 different narratives. you will have the narrative from government will see this as, you know, not, not, not infringing on the independent foreign policy to be able to decide who they want to engage with and how they want to engage with. and then boy, importantly, it's about understanding that the world is evolving in such a rapid way that you don't just put you on your luck in one particular basket. and i think that's what we seeing in the context of president of oppose and how he is leveraging the different avenues of the foreign policy. but attending the g 7. but also engaging with actors from the global south. in particular, countries like china, india, to the bricks and so forth. now, i think in the, in the, in the public domain, in the broader public domain and in that context of the broader that african public, they have different reactions. i think we are beginning to see different narratives emerge around the reaction to china. some of this narrative is not positive and

negative a narrative. and again, it will have different implications. but i think in the broader context of africa, we've got to recognize that africa is not a continent that does not have agency to acts with agency. and we've got to realize that this is about what does the developing world in particular africa want out of these engagements. and i think when you see the way in which the framing of this initiative had been put out, it becomes very reductionist, in the way that it assumes that the developing world can be actually, can actually take sides in this. and i think at this point in time, in the 21st century, this is look, this up, we were talking about, we talking about the fact that the developing world has agency and can decide itself how it wants to engage in terms of the development agenda. and more importantly, the infrastructure deficit that we are talking about in terms of the kinds of engagements we want. but also the engagement that allows independent engage port independence in terms of how we want to engage. but,

but what is the best way in which we maximize the benefit for our continent? not only the continent, brats, excuse me, but to what extent as the g 7 itself and european countries have a balancing act right now to pull off when it comes to challenging china as well as cooperating with china because some g, 7 leaders, you know, they tell you prime minister, for example, has reportedly urged jo bite and not to push competition with china to the extent that it can prevent cooperation on other important issues like climate change. well, you see across the board a bit of a mixed message, even from the united states saying on the one hand we want to compete. in some cases we want to challenge china's behavior that runs a fall of international law. but on the other hand, they are saying we want to cooperate in areas like climate change. and as you mentioned, there are varying opinions across the g 7. some countries like italy,

germany have very strong economic ties, that they are load to put at risk by cracking down. and we have seen china take retaliatory stamps when countries have even spoken out critically of some of the actions, for instance, in she's in progress. so i think we are going to have a real difficulty in trying to move in unison. and this is the challenge that lays before divided administration. you thought play out in that statement which did not go as far as the white house would have liked to have seen it, but it was still a step. it was the 1st statement of the g 7 in several years that directly addressed china and some of the human rights issues. i would take issue with my co panelists and suggest that these are just about differing narratives. i mean, there are as gross human rights violations taking place against the weaker

population against those fighting for democracy and human rights in hong kong. so i think we have to be clear eyed about what we're looking at. and let's also understand that the china is in an awkward position here because they, on the one hand, are trying to argue that no one should pay attention to what's going on in their country. and yet, on the other hand, they are very actively trying to pressure countries to take steps to, to follow their lead to follow beijing's line. so i think china is in an untenable position and what you're seeing g 7 do is try to just add more pressure on to that line in our does this pressure? this is actually pressure china. no, it actually does. and i understand we're grad is coming from, he's basically following the party line on this. it's bipartisan issue in the us.

but for china, they really don't. they don't see that. they see this is support across narrative. what you're basing that on. i know, well let's, let's base it on the fact that if you go through almost any report saying that there's something wrong with john from worker of use to women being forcibly sterilized to a 1000000 people in camps and things like this. all of these things, they stem from one individual, this guy named adrian sent an adrian dan's is on the payroll of the jamestown foundation, which was headed about by case eagle was the head of laura head of cia and has very close ties to the national endowment for democracy, which was created in the wake of the iran contra arms for oil. you know, controversy during, i should say more than controversy, illegal activity that was during the reagan administration. you know, it's,

it all sounds very convoluted, but the fact is it's, you know, from the chinese perspective it's information campaign doing exactly what my colleague is trying to do, which is to cast out that china is doing it. now. let's look at the facts. china, the only nation was addressed serious poverty. they're the ones who have seen an 18 percent increase in the population of shin, john, spite a decrease in the overall population. over the last 10 years they've eradicated extreme poverty. they provided jobs. this force, labor narrative from their perspective is they have been subsidizing companies to go to syndrome because they're trying to train the people there to do have basic schools and have companies where they can go and work. so when i say narratives i, what i'm really talking about is an ideological warfare. ok. because we're just

coming up to the end of the program, but i do have to give read the time to respond to that. brett, go ahead. yeah, i think the easiest way to respond is if there is nothing to hide, then there. sure, are a lot of police trying to bar international journalists, whether it's from al jazeera, bbc, cnn, from seeing anything that's happening in san jane providence, or for that matter on the streets of hong kong. so i think the challenge, the chinese have is a one of interest increasing scrutiny and realizing that they are not going to be able to hold the world at bay. and certainly when it comes to the origins of covey 19, and you've heard it from the world health organization, we've got to have more transparency. they owe it to the world. ok, thank you so much. we'll have to leave it there. thank you for joining us. brett brewing solution i do and are trying and thank you for watching. you can see the

program and all our previous programs as well. again, anytime by visiting our website, al jazeera dot com, and for further discussion you can go to our facebook page that facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story you can during the conversation on twitter. handle is a side story from myself and the whole team right here and they'll hi, thanks very much for watching. and we'll see you next time. bye bye for now. i i, what does that they've been doing with the money that it's borrowed? we bringing the stories and development for the rapidly changing the world we live in argentina. the congress is debating a bill, thinking to raise clearly and with dollars for families, hit hard fight and counting on al jazeera, the american people have finally spoken. america is isolate when american off balance will become more dangerous. the world is looking at us with

a mixture of sadness. with the election behind us. will the republican party dump truck your weekly take on us politics and that's the bottom line. ah, ah,

ah, me. the top stories on al jazeera president joe biden was reaffirm the united states commitment to nato. it marks a major shift from his predecessor, donald trump. during the summit and brussels members of the lions toughened this times against russia and acute china of being a security challenge, latasha bought the reports from nato headquarters. the us president joe biden sat down to reassure nato leaders of washington's commitment to the alliance. as he arrived for his 1st summit of the 30 member.