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Biden and Italy’s Meloni talk China … and Beijing is watching

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni during a press conference on a visit to Poland.

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni during a press conference on a visit to Poland.

Attila Husejnow / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksJuly 26, 2023
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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US President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will have plenty to discuss when they meet at the White House on Thursday, but no topic will be more important to both sides than Italy’s complex relationship with China.

In particular, Italy faces a looming deadline in which to decide its future as a member of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s enormous infrastructure investment plan. Meloni is reportedly considering an exit from BRI by the end of this year, since the program has offered less of value than Italy hoped when it joined in 2019 – and because Italy is part of the broader Western discussion on reducing risks related to ties with China.

Biden and Meloni will likely discuss China broadly – each leader is curious to sound the other out on their latest thinking on relations with Beijing – but it’s unclear whether Meloni will make a final announcement on Italy’s BRI membership.

China, meanwhile, is watching closely, and its state media has signaled that Italy’s BRI membership is none of Biden’s business and that a Meloni decision to renounce Italy’s membership could come with (unspecified) repercussions.
us italy china giorgia meloni biden meloni belt and road initiative

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