Italy, Lone G7 Nation In China's Belt And Road Initiative, Pulls Out Of Project: Report

Italy has withdrawn itself from China's Belt and Road Initiative after four years of signing up for the project.

Italy has formally withdrawn from China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, reported AFP quoting a government source as saying on Wednesday. Italy, the only G7 nation to have signed up for the project, withdrew itself after four years and communicated its decision to China three days ago, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. 

A source placed in the Italian government, who confirmed the development to AFP without delving into details said it was done in such a way as to "keep channels of political dialogue open".

The deal was supposed to renew automatically in March 2024 unless Rome opted out by the end of this year. 

Amid fears that withdrawal could provoke Beijing and trigger reaction against Italian companies, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said during the G20 summit in Delhi this year that leaving the project "would not compromise relations with China".

Before coming to power last year, Meloni had dubbed the decision by her predecessor Giuseppe Conte to sign up for the project in 2019 as a "serious mistake". 

In September this year, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said that the membership "has not produced the results we were hoping for".

Launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to lay a new and upgraded network of railways and ports to connect China with Europe and other parts of Asia with an estimated cost of $ 1 trillion. 

But the United States has been a vehement critic of the project from the beginning terming it as an example of "debt-trap diplomacy". Washington has charged China's plans as having involved unsustainably large projects that countries are unable to finance, giving Beijing leverage for its own aims.

India has been repeatedly voicing its criticism against the project for its flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) overriding New Delhi's sovereignty concerns. 

In October this year, New Delhi boycotted the summit of China's Belt and Road Initiative for the consecutive third time over sovereignty issues, as per a PTI report.

India has also criticised the project saying that it should be based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, and the rule of law, and follow principles of openness, transparency and financial sustainability.