Sunday’s Nikkei carried a prominent inside-page article on the Blue Dot Network initiative that the U.S. launched recently in partnership with Japan and Australia to help develop infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region. The initiative calls for the establishment of “global trust standards,” such as respect for transparency and accountability, local labor and human rights, rule of law, and the environment, to spur private investment in infrastructure. The daily said it is designed to counter China’s Belt and Road initiative, which has been described as “debt trap diplomacy.”