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Giorgia Meloni-led Italy has officially told Beijing that it is quitting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on Wednesday. Italian government officials dismissed any apprehensions that the relations between the two countries could go downhill due to this move and that this could damage the Italian economy, news agency Reuters reported.
Italy’s BRI membership was due to renew automatically in March 2024 before it officially notified China that it was withdrawing from the initiative by 2023-end. Italy become the only G7 nation in March 2019 to join the Belt and Road Initiative, one of China’s most ambitious trade and infrastructure projects.
Both the countries had planned to work together on transport, logistics and infrastructure projects under this initiative such as roads, railways, bridges, civil aviation, ports, energy and telecommunications. They also planned to work together to improve connectivity among people and develop a twinning network between cities.
At the time, the US warned Italy that this decision might let China take control of sensitive technologies and vital infrastructure. The US has time and again condemned the BRI as an example of “debt-trap diplomacy”.
Earlier this year, an Italian government source told Reuters that Prime Minister Meloni had spoken to US President Joe Biden that Italy would quit the BRI. Upon taking office last year, Meloni said that she wanted to withdraw from the BRI as it brought no significant economic gains to Italy.
The former Italian PM Giuseppe Conte hoped for reaping huge economic benefits when he signed up for the BRI in 2019. Italian exports to China stood at $17.7 billion or 16.4 billion euros last year from 13 billion euros in 2019.
Chinese exports to Italy, however, rose to 57.5 billion euros last year from 31.7 billion in 2019, as per Italian government data. The country’s main trading partners in the euro zone– France and Germany– exported much more to China last year despite not being a part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Modelled on the old Silk Road that linked China to the West, Xi Jinping launched the BRI in 2013 with an aim to invest around $1 trillion or 925 billion euros across Asia and Europe. The BRI comprises projects that connect China with Europe and other parts of Asia such as new and upgraded railways and ports.
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