The defence minister of Italy referred to his country’s choice to join a major Chinese infrastructure project as “wicked,” as the government considers whether to keep participating in the project.
Guido Crosetto claimed that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which Italy signed up for under its former government, has not done anything to boost the nation’s exports in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper that was published on Sunday.
Beijing’s international infrastructure investment programme is known as the BRI, a term established by China‘s Xi Jinping in 2013. It was created to recreate China’s Silk Road, which linked Asia with Africa and Europe in order to boost trade and economic development.
Each year, the effort has seen billions of dollars poured into infrastructure projects, including the construction of ports from Sri Lanka to West Africa, the paving of motorways from Papua New Guinea to Kenya, and the provision of power and telecoms infrastructure for people in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Critics claim that China is using the BRI to increase its global influence.
Italy joined the BRI in 2019 and is the only major Western nation and the only advanced economy from the G7.
“The decision to join the Silk Road was an improvised and wicked act, made by the government of Giuseppe Conte, which resulted in a double negative outcome,” Crosetto told the Corriere della Sera.
“We shipped a lot of oranges to China, whose exports to Italy have increased threefold in the last three years. The most absurd thing at the time was that Paris sold jets to Beijing for tens of billions of dollars without ever signing a treaty.
He stated that the current issue is how Italy may leave the BRI without hurting its relationship with Beijing. Beijing was referred to by him as “a competitor, but also a partner.”
The BRI membership of Italy will end in 2024. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asserted earlier this year that “good relations” with China could exist independently of the plan.