U.S. President Joe Biden said he suggested to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call on Friday that democratic countries should have an infrastructure plan to rival China's Belt and Road initiative.

"I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative, pulling from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help," Biden told reporters.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure program launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from East Asia to Europe.