Italy’s desire to build trade ties with China isn’t a move against the US, but an effort to “maximise” its own interests, Italy’s former Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Rome visit.
Italy is expected to sign a non-binding memorandum in support of China’s Belt and Road global trade and infrastructure network, dubbed the New Silk Road, during Xi’s visit, and has signalled its intention to play a major role in the grand plan, despite warnings about the project from Washington.
Frattini says that the project is of “very high significance” for Italy and can be “a real bridge” linking Asia and Europe. Acknowledging the US warning to Italy to steer clear of what it called China’s “vanity project,” Frattini said Italy’s involvement was “not a message against the United States, but a message to maximise european interests.”
Nonetheless, Frattini assured Washington that Italy will remain “loyal allies” with the US and will “never” put its critical infrastructure “in the hands of a foreign state.”