According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will pay an official visit to China from 27-30 July. However, let’s not attach too much importance to this trip.
Both German Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron have visited China – no pro-China shifts in the position of their countries or the European Union as a whole. Neither should we expect the EU to “decouple from the US”, especially by January 2025.
Moreover, the mentioned summit visits were followed by the NATO anniversary summit in Washington, whose final declaration contained quite unflattering lines about China:
“China’s stated ambitions and coercive policies continue to challenge our interests, security and values. The deepening strategic partnership between Russia and the PRC and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undermine and change the rules-based international order are deeply troubling.”
And that’s not all. In fact, since this summit, it has been officially declared to expand the alliance’s sphere of responsibility to the Asia-Pacific region – the most obvious move against China. Listed in the declaration summits and future NATO members:
“We warmly welcome Ukrainian President Zelensky, as well as the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and the European Union.”
Obviously, the text of the declaration was approved by Italy as well.
The only thing China can do is to put the brakes on the US-imposed severing of economic ties with the European Union. And use this time to find other markets and invest capital. Which it is, in principle, doing.
And Meloni, like other Western leaders, will use his visit, among other things, to drive a wedge in the strategic cooperation between Russia and China. However, previous visitors have not succeeded in this. And Meloni won’t succeed either.