Italian PM: Strong partnership with China more important than Belt and Road Initiative

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni holds her end-of-year information convention in Rome, Italy, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

ROME, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni mentioned on Sunday there was more to Italy’s relationship with China than the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including {that a} remaining resolution on whether or not to go away the BRI was nonetheless to be taken.

Italian media reported earlier within the day that Italy would give up the BRI and as a substitute search to revitalise a strategic partnership settlement with China, aimed toward fostering financial cooperation, that it first signed in 2004.

Italy is the one G7 nation to enroll to the BRI, a world commerce and infrastructure plan modelled on the outdated Silk Road that linked imperial China and the West.

Italy has the G7 presidency subsequent yr and recasting its relationship with Beijing would placate its Western allies, who’re afraid of Chinese affect, whereas decreasing the danger of a backlash from Beijing.

“There are European nations which in recent years haven’t been part of the Belt and Road but have been able to forge more favourable relations (with China) than we have sometimes managed,” Meloni advised a press convention on the finish of the G20 summit of the world’s main economies in New Delhi.

Meloni met Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday on the G20 sidelines and described the talks as well mannered and constructive.

“The issue is how to guarantee a partnership that is beneficial for both sides, leaving aside the decision that we will take on the BRI,” she added.

Meloni mentioned the Chinese had renewed an invite for her to go to Beijing however that no date had been set.

The Italian authorities has additionally been invited to a BRI Forum that China will host in October, she added.

Italian politicians have questioned the worth of the BRI settlement signed by a earlier administration in 2019.

In its assertion on Saturday, Meloni’s workplace talked about the 20th anniversary subsequent yr of a separate Global Strategic Partnership signed by China and a authorities led by Silvio Berlusconi in 2004.

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