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August 4, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
future. In China, for example, $28trn worth of investments are needed by 2040, only slightly more than the $26bn the country plans to spend.
The Americas and Africa, meanwhile, have smaller spending needs but are expected to have proportionally much larger gaps, at 32% and 28% of investment need respectively.
China will account for around 30% of global infrastructure needs, and is one of four countries also including the US, India and Japan, which will
US VP affirms support for CEE allies as relations with Russia deteriorate
All three countries visited by Pence between July 30 and August 2 are potential flashpoints on the increasingly tense borderline between Russia and the West. Georgia has lost large parts of its terri- tory to Russian-backed separatist forces; Monte- negro recently joined Nato despite heavy pressure from Moscow and a suspected coup attempt or- chestrated by Russia; and Estonia along with the other Baltic states is among the most vulnerable Nato members given its long border with Russia and substantial ethnic Russian minority.
“By visiting Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro,
US Vice President Mike Pence hopes to reassure nervous allies on the front lines of the Russia- West standoff, while simultaneously highlighting Moscow's pressure points,” says a commentfrom think-tank Stratfor published on August 2. “As the United States and Russia ramp up their battle for influence in the borderlands, each of these countries and their broader regions will be key to shaping the standoff in the coming months.”
make up over half of total global needs.
In terms of sector, electricity and roads together account for more than two-thirds of global investment needs, as well as dominating investment spending patters over the last 10 years, the report says.
The widest gap between need and trend is in the roads sector, where investment needs are 31% high- er than would be delivered under current trends. For ports the gap is 32%, and for airports 26%.
Throughout the visit, Pence sought to reassure lo- cal political leaders that they have US support, and that Washington will abide by Nato’s Article 5, which stipulates that Nato member states must come to the aid of fellow members in case of attack. The
US stance had previously been called into ques- tion, much to the alarm of countries across the CEE region, when Donald Trump refused to confirm he would abide by his country’s Nato commitments during the 2016 presidential campaign in the US.
This point was made explicitly by Pence in Tallinn on July 31, when he “highlighted the United States’ unwavering commitment to the security of the Baltic states and to our collective defense obligations under Nato’s Article 5,” said a US State Department statement.
Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas stressed that the US is “indispensable to ensuring the security of our immediate neighbourhood as well as all of Europe”.
In addition to Ratas, Pence met Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and her counterparts from Lithuania and Latvia, Dalia Grybauskaite and Raimonds Vejonis. All three Baltic countries have been rattled by the recent buildup of the Russian military close to their borders and in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, situated on the Baltic coast between Lithuania and Poland.