ROME

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated on Thursday that the country can enhance its economic ties with China despite her government's decision to withdraw from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“I don’t think that the tool of the BRI has given the expected results on this,” she said in her first public comments after quitting the Chinese initiative.

Italy, as the first and only G-7 country to join the program in 2019, raised concerns from the US about China potentially gaining control of critical technologies and sensitive infrastructures.

Meloni's right-wing government, which assumed office last year, had openly expressed intentions to consider leaving the agreement signed with Beijing.

Under the deal, Chinese banks and companies aimed to construct various projects worldwide, including power plants, railways, highways, ports, telecommunications infrastructure, fiber-optic cables, and smart cities.

With its five-year memorandum of understanding up for renewal in March 2024, Italy had repeatedly expressed frustration over the initiative’s unmet promises. On Wednesday, the government confirmed it had told China it was quitting the BRI deal.

Most Italian politicians, including from the opposition, praised the government’s decision.

Former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who signed the deal with China, criticized Meloni’s government, saying that “its decision is only justified by ideological reasons, not to please Italian companies, but others”.

Meloni rebuffed Conte’s criticisms saying he should explain why Italy is the only large European economy that joined the BRI but not the one with the highest trade and investment flows with China.