Italy pulls out of "New Silk Road"
Italy is turning China down and pulling out of Chinese President Xi's favorite project: The so-called New Silk Road is said not to have achieved the desired effects. However, this should not change the partnership between the two countries.
According to media reports, Italy has officially informed China of its withdrawal from the "New Silk Road" project. This was reported by the daily newspaper "Corriere della Sera" and the Italian news agency Ansa, citing informed sources.
According to these sources, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who heads a government of three right-wing parties, informed Beijing via a note verbale from the Foreign Ministry. At the same time, she was assured that Italy wanted to maintain its strategic partnership with China. There was initially no official confirmation of this in Rome.
However, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told the Adnkronis news agency at a conference: "The Silk Road is not our priority. We have seen that the Silk Road has not had the hoped-for effects. On the contrary, those who are not part of the Silk Road project have achieved better results."
EU-China summit in Beijing
Since 2019, Italy has been the only country in the Group of Seven major democratic economic powers (G7) to be a member of the infrastructure project led by China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping. The decision was made by a previous government in which Meloni was not involved. The leader of the far-right party Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) had already made it clear before her election victory last year that she wanted out.
Over the past few months, there has been repeated speculation that the move is imminent. The background to this is that the project would have automatically solidified if it had not been explicitly terminated. However, Italy's aim was also not to upset Beijing too much.
The Chinese project includes projects by land, which are part of the "New Silk Road", and by sea, which are part of the "Maritime Silk Road". "New Silk Road" is derived from the world-famous Silk Road - a network of ancient trade routes that stretched from China to Europe. This Thursday, a summit between China and the EU will take place in Beijing. Hungary is still involved in the "New Silk Road" project from the European Union.
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Despite Italy's withdrawal from the "New Silk Road" project, the country remains committed to maintaining its strategic partnership with China. The Chinese project, including the "New Silk Road" and the "Maritime Silk Road," has been a topic at the EU-China summit in Beijing, with Hungary still involved from the European Union side.
Source: www.ntv.de
