Italy To Quit From China's Belt and Road Initiative

Italy is withdrawing from China’s multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), regarded by many in the West as a Trojan horse for Beijing to advance its strategic interests, Nick Squires reported for The Telegraph.

Photo Insert: The benefits to Italy of signing up for the Belt and Road project, touted with great fanfare back in 2019, were a big fat egg.

The government of Giorgia Meloni has signaled to Washington that it will pull out of the scheme, a decision likely to infuriate Beijing but reassure Italy’s Western allies. It will affirm the Atlanticist approach of the Meloni government which has supported Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, BRI is a network of investment initiatives intended to link East Asia to Europe, centuries after the Silk Roads allowed trade in silk and hashish.

The scheme has expanded to Latin America, Africa and Oceania even as China fumbled its projects and loans stopped. Then Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte joined the BRI in 2019 and was criticized by political parties and labor unions.

The economic benefits of the scheme come with strings attached.

“The Chinese, who are born merchants, never give anything away for free - as many countries in Africa and Asia are finding out,” Stefano Stefanini, a senior adviser to the Italian government, argued.

The benefits to Italy of signing up for the Belt and Road project, touted with great fanfare back in 2019, were a big fat egg. China pledged to invest in the ports of Genova and Trieste, but these did not materialize in full, said Federico Santi, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group.

More than 140 countries accounting for two-thirds of the global population and 40% of GDP, have signed up to the BRI or said they are interested in doing so, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Many have found themselves saddled with huge debts, including Pakistan, Zambia, and Ghana. In the case of the Philippines, China pledged $24 billion in investments to the Duterte government and not even 5% materialized.

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