Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, recently had a conversation with China’s leader, Li Qiang. During their talk, she mentioned that Italy won’t be part of the New Silk Road project (belt and road initiative) anymore. Instead, she plans to strengthen a 19-year-old partnership with China as an alternative.
Italy joined the Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the New Silk Road, in 2019. China invested a lot of money in creating better roads, railways, and other infrastructure to boost trade between Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
However, cooperation between Italy, a member of the European Union, and China faced challenges from the beginning. Western countries are worried about China gaining too much influence, and it seemed like China would benefit more from the project than Italy.
During the G20 summit in India, Italian Prime Minister Meloni told Chinese leader Li that Italy won’t continue with the project when their current agreement expires. Reports from news agencies ANSA and Corriere della Sera, citing insiders, confirm this. Li apparently tried to convince Italy to stay involved, but the conversation seemed positive. Meloni assured that Italy wants to keep strong economic and political ties with China and that the decision to withdraw from the project wasn’t due to pressure from the United States.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also mentioned that Italy didn’t see as much improvement in trade with China as they had hoped since joining the New Silk Road.
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