Italy looks likely to quit China’s Belt and Road Initiative in a blow to Beijing, far less so to Rome
Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made more than a few European politicians cringe when she was elected Prime Minister last October. She would lead a state, and a coalition government, with Euroskeptic, pro-Russia leanings. Would she become a headache for the pro-West, European Union countries?
Today, Ms. Meloni has a dilemma: abandon BRI or stay put? The United States and NATO would love to see Italy ditch the BRI, all the more so since China has turned into a Russian ally, even if there is no evidence that Beijing is sending lethal weapons to Moscow to bolster President Vladimir Putin’s sputtering war machine in Ukraine.
When Italy, then under the populist government of Giuseppe Conte’s Five Star Movement, and China signed the BRI partnership four years ago, it did not come with a commitment from either country to ramp up their two-way investments or trade, even if it was assumed that China coveted a few Italian ports – notably Trieste, in the northern Adriatic, one of the gateways to Europe’s industrial heartland.
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