10/5/2023 0 Comments Superpowered initiative influence![]() Ms Meloni has attracted some criticism from the Right of her party for failing to control migration, having swept to power promising to block migrant boats in the Mediterranean. Since sweeping to power, the Italian government’s steadfast support for Ukraine, and its aversion to China, seems to have impressed Mr Biden and other Western leaders. Ms Meloni is the leader of the first hard-Right government in Italy since the Second World War, which initially caused deep alarm in Europe and in the US, as well as Italy’s first female prime minister. “Italy and the United States are also standing strong with Ukraine, and I compliment you on your very strong support in defending against Russian atrocities, and that’s what they are,” Mr Biden told the Italian leader at their meeting. ![]() ![]() Mr Biden heaped praise on Ms Meloni for her government’s staunch support of Ukraine, which has won her merit with Western allies because her Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party is considered to have sympathies towards Moscow. ![]() It came as Ms Meloni, who swept to victory in elections last September, returned from a cordial visit to Washington where the US president said the pair had become “friends”. “I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative, pulling from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help,” he said. Mr Biden himself suggested earlier this year that the West needs to develop its own version of the BRI. The minister’s remarks align Italy much more closely with US president Joe Biden and other Western leaders who are increasingly concerned about China building its influence via trade and infrastructure projects. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, says her government has until December to make the decision and that she will visit China soon, in what may prove to be a tense diplomatic encounter.Ĭhina has dispatched numerous officials to Italy in the hopes of dissuading the government, apparently with minimal success in light of the defence minister’s comments over the weekend. He stressed that Italy would need to withdraw from the BRI “without producing disasters” due to Beijing being such a key player on the world stage. Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner,” added Mr Crosetto in an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. “The issue today is: how to walk back without damaging relations. Italy is the only Western power to sign up to the BRI, and Mr Crosetto’s hard-Right government has for weeks been signalling that it wishes to reverse that decision. Critics of the BRI say it is a clear attempt by China to increase its geopolitical influence and trade. The Belt and Road Initiative seeks to rebuild the old Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe with major infrastructure projects. He also claimed the initiative, which the Italian government is trying to withdraw from by the end of the year, has enriched China but had minimal impact on Italian exports. “The decision to join the Silk Road was an improvised and atrocious act,” Guido Crosetto said in a newspaper interview over the weekend, referring to the decision to do so by a previous government. Italy will leave China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the country’s defence minister has confirmed, as he called the decision to join it “atrocious”.
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