Italian Minister favors BRI exit

Italy’s Minister of Defense has called his country’s formal entry into the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) an „improvised and atrocious“ act. Joining the BRI has multiplied China’s exports to Italy, but not Italian exports to the People’s Republic, Guido Crosetto said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. He added that the question now is how Italy can leave the BRI without damaging relations with Beijing. „Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner,“ Crosetto said. Such deliberations from Rome to leave the project are not new, but with Crosetto, a minister now clearly spoke out against the BRI.