Italy is highly unlikely to renew its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) deal with China, which expires early next year, but needs time to discuss the issue with Beijing, a senior Italian government official said.
The official, who has knowledge of internal discussions over the matter, said a formal decision would not be made ahead of this month’s G7 summit in Japan, adding that it was highly sensitive topic.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office declined to comment.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Italy in 2019 became the first and so far only G7 member state to join the hugely ambitious Chinese program, which critics said would enable Beijing to gain control of sensitive technologies and vital infrastructure.
Then-Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte hoped the deal would give a lift to Italy’s underperforming economy, but over the past four years it has seen little benefit, with exports to China totaling 16.4 billion euros (US$18.1 billion) last year, compared with 13 billion euros in 2019.
By contrast, Chinese imports from Italy increased to 57.5 billion euros from 31.7 billion euros over the same period, Italian government data showed.
Italy’s main eurozone trading partners France and Germany exported significantly more to China last year, despite not being part of Beijing’s infrastructure program.
The government official said Rome would use this lack of economic development as an argument for not renewing the deal.
The pact expires in March next year and would be automatically renewed unless either side informs the other that it is pulling out at least three months before the expiry date.
In an interview with Reuters last year, before she became prime minister after a September election, Meloni made clear she disapproved of Conte’s decision.
“There is no political will on my part to favor Chinese expansion into Italy or Europe,” she said.
Meloni has been keen to burnish her credentials as a committed pro-NATO, pro-Atlantic leader, catching the eyes of Western allies with robust, vocal support for Ukraine.
However, she has been careful not to offend China, and government officials said Rome did not want to cause a diplomatic rupture.
China had to remain a partner, but Italy could not get into a situation in which it was overreliant on Beijing in any key sector, as had happened with Russia and its energy supplies, a second official said.
Meloni met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Indonesia in November last year and accepted an invitation to visit China, but a date has not yet been fixed.
Meloni has also not yet visited Washington, and the government official said she did not want to travel to Beijing without having first been received by US President Joe Biden.
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