Italy Became The First G7 Country To Join The "One Belt And One Way Initiative" To Open Europe To China.

On March 23rd, during his state visit to Italy, President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing and exchange of memorandum of understanding between Italy and China's prime minister Kong Te to jointly promote the "one belt and one road" development.

Italy became the first G7 member to take part in building "one belt and one road" in the form of "official propaganda".

The chorus of "one belt and one road" advocated by President Xi Jinping sounded the "high pitch" of Italy.

Italy is the fourth largest member of the European Union and a member of the G-7.

If Portugal signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in the construction of the "one belt and one way" initiative last year, it has opened a precedent in Western European countries. Italy has broken the EU core circle's evasion of the "one belt and one road" and rejected the "one belt and one road" by the US led G7.

The statement made by the Prime Minister of Italy, Conte, has brought a great shock to the western world, and it also signifies that China will open up the gap that once dominated the global economy.

In addition, the central and Eastern European countries that have joined the "one belt and one way" initiative, the US led and European and Japanese boycott "along the way" situation has begun to collapse.

It is reported that China is Italy's largest trading partner in Asia and Italy's third largest source of imports. Italy is China's fifth largest trading partner in the EU and the fifth largest source of direct investment.

Sino Italian bilateral trade volume broke through fifty billion US dollars in 2018, an increase of 9.1% over the same period last year.

Italy is an important node of the Silk Road in history. Therefore, we have a deeper understanding of the development opportunities behind the "one belt and one road" initiative. Joining the "one belt and one road" construction will inject new vitality into Italy's economy.

Zheng Yongnian, director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, has similar views.

In Zheng Yongnian's view, Italy's move is in line with its national interests.

On the one hand, one of the important contents of the "one belt and one way" construction is to promote the interconnection and interconnection of infrastructures. Italy itself has an urgent need to improve domestic infrastructure. Joining the "one belt and one way" construction is conducive to promoting bilateral cooperation in infrastructure construction.

On the other hand, up to now, the European economy has not been able to successfully get out of the shadow of the financial crisis in 2008, and the economic recovery is weak.

Many European countries, including Italy, lack the power of economic growth and take part in the "one belt road" construction, including jointly developing the third party international market, which can bring enormous opportunities for Italy's economic development.

For China, Italy's accession means a further expansion of the "one belt and one road" circle of friends.

Wang Shuo, deputy director of the Institute of European studies, China Institute of modern international relations, pointed out that Italy's accession is not only so simple as a country.

With Britain's "off Europe" in the future, Italy is probably the third largest economy in the European Union, so Italy's accession to the "one belt and one road" construction is of great symbolic significance.

Earlier, Vice Premier Luigi Dimallo of Italy has publicly stated that Italy hopes to become the first G7 country to sign a memorandum of understanding with China on the "one belt and one road" initiative.

In December 2018, Giovanni Teria, Minister of the Ministry of economy and finance of Italy, once again stressed that Italy is ready to take the "one belt and one road" initiative as the next major growth power of Italy's economy. "The belt and road initiative" is a train that Italy must catch up with.

It can be said that the positive response to the "one belt and one way" initiative is in line with the national interests of Italy, and is also the result of careful study of the international situation by all sectors of Italy in recent years.

The "one belt and one way" initiative will further release the potential of cooperation between China and the two countries, especially the third party market cooperation along the "one belt and one road", which will create huge room for development for both countries.