‘Didn’t Produce Results We Hoped For’: Italy Exits China’s Belt and Road Project

Italy formally withdrew from the Chinese Belt and Road Infrastructure initiative (BRI), almost four years after becoming the only nation among the G7 countries to sign up for the project, government officials familiar with the developments told news agency AFP.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in a separate report said that Rome conveyed the decision to counterparts in Beijing three days ago but there has been no official statement from either side.

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It should be noted that Italy in September, during the New Delhi G20 Summit, became one of the signatory countries in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEE EC) and signed the memorandum of understanding on Day 1 of the summit.

Officials told the news agency that Italy pulled out of the BRI in such a manner that kept “channels of political dialogue open”, without giving much detail. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, before being elected to her current role, lamented that the decision to join the BRI by the previous government led by Giuseppe Conte in 2019 was a “serious mistake”.

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Critics of the BRI say the trillion-dollar investment scheme could be a predatory “Trojan horse” aimed at buying political influence. Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said in September that membership “has not produced the results we were hoping for”.

Even as China has spent millions of dollars into infrastructure projects in Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Sri Lanka, along West Africa and provide telecom infrastructure for Latin Americans and southeast Asians, experts also see the BRI as a tool for spreading Chinese influence across the world.

The BRI deal was due for automatic renewal in March 2024 unless Italy opted out by the end of this year.

Guido Crosetto, speaking to Italian news media outlet Corriere della Sera in July, said the decision to join the BRI was ‘wicked’ and it has failed to help the country’s exports.

“The choice to join the Silk Road was an improvised and wicked act, made by the government of Giuseppe Conte, which led to a double negative result,” Crosetto said earlier this year.

But Rome has exercised caution in order to not provoke Beijing and risk retaliation against Italian companies operating in China. Meloni told reporters during the G20 Summit in New Delhi that if Italy leaves the project, it would do so in a manner that “would not compromise relations with China”.