According to a report by Global Network on October 26, the EU held the first "Global Gateway" forum in Brussels on October 25 and 26 to promote its global infrastructure construction plan. It has to be said that after China just held the third "Belt and Road" Forum for International Cooperation, the EU's move inevitably caused heated discussions from the outside world. Since China proposed the "Belt and Road" initiative 10 years ago to promote the world to build infrastructure to connect more efficiently, the "Global Gateway" plan was only proposed in 2021, and the 300 billion euro investment plan also involves infrastructure construction. In the eyes of many foreign media, this is "countering China" in order to replace China's "Belt and Road" initiative.
Judging from the official website of the European Commission, we note a wording that cannot be ignored, and this forum demonstrates the high-quality, transparent investment that the EU offers in global connectivity, health, education and research systems. In view of the fact that the United States and the West have frequently smeared the "Belt and Road" initiative as so-called "mandatory and opaque" in public opinion, and also maliciously hyped the so-called "China creates a debt trap", combined with the above-mentioned "high quality and transparency", it inevitably reflects the meaning of the EU's targeting.
It is worth mentioning that the leaders and representatives of nearly 20 countries gathered in the EU for this meeting, most of them from developing countries, such as Armenia, Albania, Morocco and other countries, as well as representatives from Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe, and the number of high-level government representatives sent by these countries exceeded 40. It is reported that the EU wants to connect the key regions where developing countries are concentrated, focusing on Africa, the Western Balkans and Latin America, such ambitions, if only to counter China, the pattern is too small. We must know that the world economy is currently in a downturn, and it is wise to strengthen unity and promote regional cooperation, while blindly holding the Cold War mentality and pursuing camp confrontation will only aggravate the division of the world, which is obviously a short-sighted act of strategy.
It is worth mentioning that before the "Global Gateway" forum, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had already thrown an olive branch. At the Sino-foreign press conference after the Belt and Road Summit, Wang Yi bluntly said that China is willing to connect with all connectivity initiatives and jointly explore cooperation that is beneficial to developing countries. For example, it can connect with the "Global Gateway" plan proposed by the European Union, give play to their respective advantages, form a joint force, and jointly help developing countries accelerate the construction of infrastructure. In addition, Wang Yi also sent out an invitation to compete, which is simply to compare who has obtained more benefits for developing countries, such as looking at the number of roads, railways, schools, hospitals and other facilities built. It can be seen from this that Wang Yi's proposal is extremely wise, because the United States and the West often politicize normal economic issues and cooperation issues, deliberately engaging in closed circles, and this proposal just hits the soft underbelly of those Western politicians with bad intentions.
It should be pointed out that due to the increasing openness of the "Belt and Road" and the acceleration of international recognition, the "Belt and Road" summit achieved remarkable results, tens of thousands of representatives from more than 150 countries and more than 40 international organizations gathered in China to achieve 458 results, and the amount of cooperation agreements signed by Chinese and foreign enterprises was as high as 97.2 billion US dollars, remains to be seen. If the EU can promote the docking of the "Belt and Road" and the "Global Gateway" with a more pragmatic attitude, form complementary advantages, and actively compete under the initiative of Wang Yi, the good atmosphere and achievements formed by the two sides will naturally win the high appreciation and recognition of more developing countries, thereby promoting the better development of the world.