Chinese President Xi Jinping recruited Italy’s populist government into his global Belt and Road development project, with the signing of an accord that has sparked worries in the U.S. and European Union over the Asian power’s push for economic domination.
Italy is the first Group of Seven nation to volunteer for a role in the massive international program, with a memorandum of understanding that the two sides formally approved at the Renaissance-era Villa Madama in Rome on Saturday.
Chinese and Italian companies signed 10 accords potentially worth as much as 20 billion euros ($23 billion), including a leverage effect, at the ceremony, officials said. Xi and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte sat in front of Chinese, Italian and European Union flags for the ceremony in a frescoed hall.
