G7's BRI counter goes quiet: PGII absent from Trump's 2026 budget even as Lobito advances
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment loses its line item while the administration reframes its surviving projects as anti-China minerals plays
Summary
The G7's Pgi G7 (Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment), launched 2022 as the West's $600bn-by-2027 answer to BRI, does not appear in the Trump administration's 2026 budget, and USAID's Africa Trade and Investment activity was wound down early in 2025. Yet surviving flagships advance: the US DFC delivered a $553m loan to the Lobito Corridor, now reframed openly as an anti-China critical-minerals play rather than development aid. The United States says it has mobilised >$60bn under PGII over three years, short of the $200bn US share of the $600bn goal. The shift is from a branded global programme to a narrower, transactional minerals-and-supply-chain agenda, even as the EU's Global Gateway raises its target.
By the numbers
- $600bn, G7 PGII mobilisation goal by 2027 ($200bn US share).
$60bn, US-claimed PGII mobilisation over three years.
- $553m, DFC loan to Lobito, advanced despite the budget omission.
- 0, PGII line items in Trump's 2026 budget.
- 2025, year USAID's Africa Trade and Investment activity ended early.
Why it matters
If the West's flagship BRI counter loses its budget identity and survives only as project-by-project minerals financing, it cedes the framing war to Beijing, which signs at twice the pace and brands every deal. The transactional turn may secure specific corridors like Lobito while forfeiting the broader bid for influence.
What to watch
- Whether Congress restores any PGII funding or it dissolves into DFC/EXIM deals.
- DFC and EXIM commitments as the de facto US corridor vehicle.
- Whether G7 partners (EU, Japan, Canada) sustain PGII without US branding.