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| Italy rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping (AFP Photo/Tiziana FABI) |
Chinese President Xi Jinping sought Friday to allay Western unease over his new Silk Road initiative by emphasising the vast infrastructure project's two-way nature as he kicked off a whistlestop European tour in Rome.
Italy has
rolled out the red carpet for Xi, who will on Saturday sign a memorandum of
understanding for Rome to join the $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative despite
misgivings in Washington and Brussels.
Italy will
be the first of the Group of Seven most-developed nations to sign up for the
new Silk Road, which critics say is "predatory" and overwhelmingly
favours China and Chinese companies.
"Between
us, there is no fundamental conflict of interest," Xi told journalists
after talks with his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella.
"China
wants commercial exchanges to go both ways and for investment to flow in both
directions," Xi said.
Mattarella
said that business must go "in both directions... with fair competition,
respecting intellectual property rights and while fighting counterfeit
goods".
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Xi said
there was "no fundamental conflict of interest" between China and
Italy after
talks with his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella (AFP
Photo/Handout)
|
Salvini
snub
Around
1,000 extra police have been deployed around Rome for the state visit before Xi
heads to the Sicilian city of Palermo, where his singer wife Peng Liyuan
reportedly wants to see the Teatro Massimo opera house.
In what
some perceived as a snub, Italy's far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo
Salvini said he would not attend Friday's state dinner for Xi at Mattarella's
Quirinal Palace.
Salvini has
said Italy would be "no-one's colony" and urged caution about using
telecom Chinese giant Huawei's next generation 5G mobile technology, while his
coalition partner Luigi Di Maio is keener for Chinese partnerships.
The United
States has warned European allies that Huawei could use its 5G technology as a
"backdoor" for spying, a claim that China has strongly rejected,
calling them "abnormal, immoral" attacks.
NATO member
Italy's plan to join China's ambitious maritime, rail and road venture has
raised eyebrows among Western allies and within Italy.
"Today
we say 'Italy first' in trade relations, while remaining US allies, in NATO and
in the EU," Deputy Prime Minister Di Maio of the anti-establishment Five
Star Movement said on the sidelines of a China-Italy business forum on Friday.
'Vanity project'
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The New
Silk Road is a massive Chinese infrastructure project including road,
rail and
ship routes (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU)
|
'Vanity project'
Debt-ridden
Italy is technically in recession and keen to have more business with China.
White House
official Garrett Marquis last week tweeted that there was "no need"
for Italy to endorse "China's infrastructure vanity project".
Xi's visit
comes a week after the European Union released a 10-point plan outlining a
shift to more assertive relations with Beijing, warning that China was a
"rival" to the bloc as well as its biggest trading partner.
France on
Thursday announced that President Emmanuel Macron will hold trade and climate
talks on Tuesday with Xi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European
Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
In
Brussels, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Friday briefed EU leaders
about Italy's Silk Road MoU, where Merkel said: "As he (Conte) described
it, I don't think I have anything to criticise, for now.
"But
we have of course already said that it's better to act uniformly," she
said.
Macron, who
is at loggerheads with Italy's populist government, said: "It's not a good
method to discuss new Silk Road agreements bilaterally."
Friday's
Brussels summit also laid the foundations for Europe-wide policies ahead of a
much-anticipated China-EU summit on April 9 in the Belgian capital.
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Italy's
far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says he will not attend the state
dinner for Xi (AFP Photo/Ahmad GHARABLI)
|
"For
the first time there is a will to coordinate," Macron said.
The
European Commission will before the end of the year come up with a broad
proposal for the EU's "industrial future", including measures on
commerce, competition and hi-tech.
Beijing is
particularly interested in investing in Italian ports to help funnel its
products into Europe, amid warnings that Rome must avoid the model of the Greek
port of Piraeus, which was taken over by Chinese shipping giant Cosco in 2016.
Supporters
of the non-binding memorandum of understanding said that it will lead to China
complying with European Union standards, including on the environment and
intellectual property, and cannot be compared to debt-inducing deals Beijing
has signed with developing countries.
Despite
apparent warming ties, Xi is not expected to meet Pope Francis.
The Vatican
has diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not Beijing, so the encounter would be
unlikely despite an agreement on appointing bishops in China signed last year.
Xi heads to
Monaco on Sunday and then on to France to cap his European tour.
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These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes. .."
".. Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently …”
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