and malls to reopen. this is al jazeera. joe biden is renewing the u.s. commitment to nato. marks a major shift from his predecessor donald trump. members of the alliance toughened their stance and accused china of being a security challenge. >> russia and china are seeking to drive a wedge in our solidarity. we have seen an increase in cyber activity. our alliance is a strong foundation. nato stands together.

that is how we have met every other threat. it is our greatest strength, as we meet our challenges of the future, and there are many. everyone in that room today understood the shared appreciation that america is back. >> members of congress in the u.s. held a moment of silence as the number of approaches 600,000. the u.s. accounts for 15% of the world death toll but with more than 40% of the population fully vaccinated, the death rate has dramatically slowed. that u.k. is delaying its plan to ease restrictions. the final stage was to be carried out next week, but arise in cases linked to the delta variant has prompted the government to push back a full reopening. thousands of people have been evacuated after an explosion in

illinois. emergency workers say there is no danger to air quality at ground level. fire fighters plan to let the fire continue to burn and say water can cause it to flow to a nearby river. goodbye. >> the pain is unbearable. relatives were killed last week during a military operation ordered by the venezuelan government. security forces accuse them of being part of a colombian rebel group. neighbors and family members insist they were innocent, taken venezuela's defense minister said the armed forces -- human rights need to be respected and defense at the border would be investigated.

host: yield a better world without china. the g7 offers a western rival to beijing. will developing nations benefit and what is really behind this push against china? this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. build back better. that is the main promise from the first g7 summit since the pandemic began. leaders of the world's seven main industrialized nations pledged to tackle climate change and provide vaccines to the world. they also offer developing nations a rival to china's global investment and development strategy, the belt and rode.

initiative beijing was singled out for a budget human rights violations. the u.s. president says the g7 is determined to uphold democratic values around the world. >> i feel strongly. i propose that we have a democratic alternative to the belt and wrote initiative. build back better. they have agreed to that, that is underway. thirdly, we are consistent -- insisting on high standards. climate friendly and transparent alternative to the belt and wrote initiative. in the meantime, we're going to move forward. host: the chinese embassy has responded, the spokesperson said it distorted and reversed remarks, deliberately slandered

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. china's president set up the initiative in 2013. it involves development and investment projects across asia, europe and involve -- beyond. for than 100 countries signed agreements with china. the initiative is estimated to include more than 2600 projects with a combined value of $3.7 trillion. china is a cruised of lowering developing countries into a death trap. it took control of syria like a sport after the country failed to make payments. critics see it as a way of china extending its influence while beijing says the project connects hundreds of countries. let's bring in our guests.

he is a former u.s. diplomat. and a senior researcfellow. the south african think tank. since the announcement of the belt and wrote initiative, the g7 and americans have not come up with a concrete plan for that initiative. why do you think they have come up with one now? >> clearly we have seen chinese influence grow, especially across the african continent, south and central asia. it was time. the west needs to be able to offer something more than just principles and an occasional project. we need a more robust plan. that is what you saw the beginnings of at this week's g7.

the real question is, can they put more meat on the bone? well this materialized into a massive program or a big ambition. host: a lot of questions still unanswered. this initiative was previously talked about by the u.s. president, but what do you make of the, of this announcement? >> timing is interesting. it has been an aggressive push. i think what is interesting about it is the way in which it is being packaged, programs, projects, talking about accountability. trying to link the program, it

is interesting to look at it in the context of dividing the world into democracy and autocracy. we go back to a cold war redux with this kind of rhetoric. i have to say that i agreed, we have to see what kind of flesh is given to the whole program. at the moment, it is very much a conception of what is going to happen, and not necessarily giving us details about the amount of money this program will have, how the funding will be structured, what kind of projects, in terms of what levels of conditions, who can apply for funds, it's a return to the development finance agenda and have a g7 in particular, the u.s. wants to push forward, i think the details still need to be fleshed out. host: are you getting any idea at all of how this project is actually going to be implemented, who comes up with the money?

they're saying they would like to close a $40 trillion infrastructure gap in developing countries by 2035, but still lacking a lot of detail. >> you are right. one of the key drivers for this project is the relationship the private sector is going to have. how the private sector contributes to the finance. how is the money going to be raised? in equity markets? development finance institutions? an alternative to what we are now seeing as a response by the chinese that this is talking about their initiative and they are funding with regards to the so-called fund and asia infrastructure investment on. i think what is important here is how this money is going to come about, where the liquidity lies, how this is going to tie-in. is this going to be some kind of funding that is renewing the world bank?

there is a lot of uncertainty. i can say that in terms of geostrategic issues in africa, it's definitely going to raise different dynamics. it's going to create more and more divisions, more dimensions around what level these projects have. dynamics with regard to whether it finds the traction around -- how that belt and road initiative has had traction in the continent. i think we also try to understand what the projects and how they are being financed. at this point, it is still very much, looking at this initiative and asking ourselves, what does it mean going forward? we don't want to see this kind of binary approach.

host: you raise a couple of points. will the lack of detail backfire? some people say the belt and wrote initiative is very clear. we are building infrastructure. what is the u.s. is strategy here? >> there certainly is a risk, because they are elevating the expectations. if they fail to deliver, that would undermine confidence in the west and the united states. 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 the final of this money, but on your allies. 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. when they announced the 500 million doses of pfizer vaccines, he emphasized the fact that it was going to help american workers. the weakness in the initiative has been there are so many chinese workers that are shipped over to these countries to do the project, and that is really going to the attention if in fact, this is going to install new infrastructure, but is it going to build the human infrastructure across the developing world that is so desperately needed? >> joining us as a political analyst and economic specialist focusing on china. thanks for your time. what is your reaction? >> it is a little bit empty.

obviously focused on china. but there are really no details. we don't know what they are going to do. the covid vaccine. unfortunately that will be a bit late. i think it's two weeks ago they exported 350 million doses of vaccine. in negotiation with 10 other countries. host: when it comes to the announcement to beijing by establishing their own initiative, are they directly trying to undermine them? what do you think is behind that?

>> it is seen as a competitive issue. the u.s. feels it is behind and that it needs to respond. the belt and wrote initiative has been in operation for many years. biden sees as a threat. it's fine to talk about $40 trillion but you have to put more out there. public-private partnership. not reinventing the wheel. doing a lot of similar things. required bureaucracy. morant limitation. going to take time. not clear what it all means or what the timetable is. or how it can be paid for this is depending on private

financing. that could change dramatically if we had a recession, we start to see bank rates go up people become concerned and start paying off their loans. >> i will stick with you. under joe biden there is an ongoing attempt to reframe the g7 as the champion of the democratic world. how much of this is a pushback against beijing when it comes to issues of real concern, such as human rights, taiwan, covid-19. >> you named a number of issues. beijing sees a lot of false narratives. they think their handling of covid-19 was pretty good. there were some problems in the

first couple of weeks with officials who do not understand the complexity or gravity what they were involved with. beijing thought they were very transparent. all the efforts to cooperate our giving oxygen to a lot of conspiracy theories. they thought the science that come back and identified this was a high probability from animal to human, now we are hearing about the leak. in terms of human rights, china has its own narrative on this. they believe they are doing the right thing both in hong kong, and shem john. they believe they are making a difference. that they are doing the same thing in essence that they did

in the rest of china. the common language, access to skills, economic opportunity. there is obviously duly narratives. a lot of it seems to be ideological. from china's perspective, they see the u.s. trying to hold on. they do not see themselves as a threat to the u.s., but they do think the u.s. sees them as a threat. host: how much of this project has to do with pressuring china on issues such as human rights, taiwan, the uighur muslims. >> i think this particular 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 with the autocratic approach to governing, or are they going to stay with the west, democracy. that is the currents challenge for the g7 countries and for others. ken they went back some of the support. ? been happening here has raised questions as to whether washington is reliable. part of what president biden is trying to do is one of the old strategies we used to use, you build a big bold initiative that's going to out of your time in office in the hopes.

think that's what we are seeing happen right now. host: over in south africa, how would the country be viewing this? this is not only about confronting china but presenting a positive alternative to the world. a result of china's relationship with the developing world. >> you have two or three different narratives. not infringing on independent foreign policy, who they want to engage, how they want to engage. the world is evolving in such a rapid way. that's what we are seeing in the context of the president and how he is leveraging different

avenues of foreign policy, but also engaging with actors, in particular china. in the public domain and that context, there may be different reactions. we are seeing different narratives emerged around the reaction to china. some of this is not positive, it is a negative narrative. it will have different implications. in the broader context of africa, have to recognize africa is not a continent that does not have agency. we have got to realize this is about what does the developing world wants out of these engagements? it becomes reductionist in the way that it assumes the developing world can take sides.

the developing world has agency and can decide what it wants to do in terms of the kinds of engagements, but the engagement that allows independent thought, independence. what is the best way to maximize the benefit for our continent. host: not only the confidence, but to what extent is the g7 a balancing act when it comes to challenging china as well as cooperating with china? you have the italian prime minister who has urged joe biden not to push competition to the extent it can prevent tocooperation on other important issues. >> dale: >> across-the-board a bit of a mixed message even from the united states, saying on the one

hand we want to compete, challenge china's behavior that runs afoul. to cooperate in areas like climate change. there are varying opinions across the g7. some countries like italy, germany have very strong economic ties that they are low two-putted risk by cracking down. we have seen china take metallic tory steps when countries have even spoken out critically of some of the actions, for instance in the province. i think we are going to have a real difficulty in trying to move in unison. this is the challenge that lays before biden. you saw it play out in that statement which did not go as far as the white house would have liked to have seen.

but it was still a step, it was the first statement of the g7, that directly addressed china and some human rights issues, i would say issues with the cocom, these aren't just about differing narratives, there are gross human rights violations taking place against the uighur population, against those fighting for democracy, human rights in hong kong, i think we have to be clear eyed about what we are looking at, and let's also understand that 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 is going on in their country, and yet on the other hand, they are very actively trying to pressure countries to take steps to follow their lead, to follow beijing's line, so i think china is in an untenable position, and

what you are seeing the g7 do is try to add more pressure. host: does this pressure -- does this actually pressure china? >> no it doesn't. i understand where the other one is coming from. the is following the party line on this. it's a bipartisan issue in the u.s.. for china, they don't see that. they see this is a false narrative. host: what are you basing that on? >> let's face it on the fact that if you go through almost any report saying there is something wrong with shenyang, women being forcibly sterilized, a million people in camps. all of these things stem from one individual. he is on the payroll of the

jamestown foundation. has very close ties to the national endowment for democracy, in the wake of the iran-contra arms for oil controversy. illegal activity during the reagan administration. it all sounds very convoluted but the fact is. it's information campaign. let's look at the facts. china is the only nation who has addressed serious poverty. they are the ones who have seen an 18% increase in the population. they have eradicated extreme poverty. they have provided jobs.

the forced labor perspective is they have been subsidized because they are trying to train the people there. to have basic skills and have companies where they can go and work. when i say narratives, i am talking about an ideological warfare. host: hang on a second. have to give brett the time to respond. >> i think the easiest way to respond as if there is nothing to hide, there sure are a lot of police to bar international journalists, whether al jazeera, bbc, cnn from seeing anything happening there. i think the challenge that the chinese have used one of 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 covid-19, you heard it from the world health organization, you have to have more transparency. host: thank you so much. thank you for joining us. thank you for watching. you can see the program anytime by visiting our website. for further discussions go to facebook. join the conversation on twitter. thanks for watching. hexxxúúúúúóóóóóóóó??■

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ samantha hawley: as a foreign correspondent, my job takes me to many countries, but stepping into this one, i'm feeling mildly unsettled. after all, this is saudi arabia, home to islam's holiest cities and governed by sharia law. women have few rights here.