Italy Exits China’s Belt and Road Project

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the project did not produce the results that were expected.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Nov. 22, 2023. Michele Tantussi/Getty Images

Italy is pulling out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), delivering a major blow to the communist regime’s ambitious project.

Italy was the only member of the Group of 7 leading economic powers to have joined the trillion-dollar project, which Chinese leader Xi Jinping launched a decade ago to expand the regime’s geopolitical influence through infrastructure investment.