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Joining China’s Belt and Road was an ‘atrocious’ decision: Italy minister
Well, yes. And they were warned, too, but thought they were being clever. It’s especially interesting to find this in Dawn, when Pakistan is still so keen on their own involvement in BRI projects.
[Dawn] Italia made an "improvised and atrocious" decision when it joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) four years ago as it did little to boost exports, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in an interview published on Sunday.

Italia signed up to the BRI under a previous government, becoming the only major Western country to have taken such a step. Crosetto is part of an administration that is considering how to break free of the agreement.

The BRI scheme envisions rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and beyond with large infrastructure spending. Critics see it as a tool for China to spread its geopolitical and economic influence.

"The decision to join the (new) Silk Road was an improvised and atrocious act" that multiplied China’s exports to Italia but did not have the same effect on Italian exports to China, Crosetto told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

"The issue today is: how to walk back (from the BRI) without damaging relations (with Beijing). Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner," the defence minister added.

After a White House meeting US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. S Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run....
 on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government had until December to make a decision on the BRI, and also announced she would soon travel to Beijing.

In an interview on Saturday with the TG5 Italian news programme, Meloni said it was a "paradox" that even if Italia is part of the BRI, it is not the G7 country with the strongest trading links to China.

"This shows that you can have good relations and trading partnerships" even outside of the BRI, she added.
Posted by: trailing wife 2023-07-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=674196