Meloni to plan Italy's withdrawal from China's Silk Road project
According to the media, the prime minister plans to announce this on Thursday. Italy does not want to get into the US-Chinese area of tension with the controversial project
 Giorgia Meloni is likely to withdraw from the Silk Road Initiative with Italy.REUTERS/GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE
Rome – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will announce at a meeting with US President Joe Biden next Thursday in Washington that Italy will withdraw from a controversial investment pact with China, the so-called Belt and Road Initiative, by the end of this year. Italy will no longer renew the Memorandum of Understanding, which binds the country to the Belt and Road Initiative, the Roman daily La Repubblica reported.
In 2019, Italy became the first major industrial nation to join China's multibillion-dollar investment program, the Belt and Road Initiative. So far, however, this has led to few concrete projects. Before her election victory last September, Meloni had declared that she would not pursue the initiative.
Tense situation between China and the USAThe growing tensions between Beijing and Washington, both over China's proximity to Russia and China's Taiwan policy, would make it too risky to associate economically with Asian power, Rome said.
According to media reports, the United States had explicitly called on Rome to take a position on the investment pact, which was concluded in 2019 by the previous government led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
There are fears of economic retaliation from Beijing. To date, the Silk Road project has financed infrastructure projects worth 900 billion euros worldwide. (APA, 24/7/2023) |
