The trip, in both its timing and content, was designed compete with China and expand American influence. Senegal, the U.S. Secretary of State’s last stop, happens to be the host country of the upcoming Eighth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Ministerial Conference. That’s no coincidence.

After moves by France, Germany and the Netherlands, the introduction of the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific should come as no surprised. Two questions emerge: Is this new version of the strategy a follow-up to the United States or an independent strategic consideration? And how should China respond?

Stability and unity in Afghanistan will facilitate the extension of the Belt and Road Initiative and connect western Asia. China can play a key role in helping the Afghan people embark on a road of national reconstruction and prosperity.

The historic completion of the Pelješac bridge in Croatia marks the first time a Chinese firm and the EU have completed a project together, setting the stage for the BRI’s implementation in Eastern Europe.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is clearly mapping out its ambitions for global influence challenging the primacy of the U.S. Now, Western allies have presented a B3W Partnership to challenge China with additional global infrastructure investment.

The Group of Seven’s (G7) fixation on China and Russia is problematic because member countries still have serious internal problems related to their domestic economies and income inequality.

The U.S. and others should help developing countries solve their problems, rather than using them as a playing field in a geopolitical competition with China. Excessive competition will not lead to the better world that the American president says he seeks.

Australia’s outlier history as a “Western” nation situated in the Pacific means it’s caught in the middle of simmering global tensions between China and the U.S.

China’s economy has outpaced all other nations in growth for decades, following a growth model that led to 800 million people being lifted out of poverty. As growth begins to taper off, they’re now faced with the challenge of replacing dated practices with new models of development to make it past what economists call “the middle-income trap.”

Who will win the ‘hearts and minds’ of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europeans with well-spent investment – Beijing with the Belt and Road, or Washington with the Three Seas Initiative?