Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Italy for an official visit to sign up the eurozone’s third-largest economy to its “belt and road” global investment drive, said the Financial Times.
“With this visit I would like to draw up, together with the Italian leaders, the guidelines for bilateral relations and lead them into the new era,” Mr Xi said in an editorial written for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Mr Xi said China and Italy would “strengthen ties at the highest
level,” and that co-operation between the two countries would “create a new era
for the Belt and Road in areas such as marine, aviation, aerospace and
culture.”
Italy is the first member of the G7 group of big industrialized countries to
give a formal endorsement to Beijing’s Belt and Road global investment drive.