2023-05-03 00:29:33
Joe Biden’s indication for the US diplomatic representative in Rome will lead to the launch of a hot dossier: to convince Meloni not to renew Italy’s participation in the Silk Road
Finally Joe Biden put an end to a long snub against Italy. The appointment of the new US ambassador had been expected for over two years. Now that Viviana Mazza has anticipated the official announcement of the White House on the name of Jack Markell
it is also possible to anticipate a red-hot dossier that the new ambassador will have to deal with: convincing Giorgia Meloni not to renew Italy’s participation in the New Silk Roads of Xi Jinping.
The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and China took place by the then Prime Minister Joseph Conte (Count I government) in 2019 when he welcomed the Chinese leader to Italy. She was immediately considered a vulnus, a wound inflicted on the compactness of Westerners. Italy was the only G7 nation to allow itself to be drawn into that maxi infrastructure investment plan whose official name is the Belt and Road Initiative.
The American discontent was evident from the beginning, when he was in the White House Donald Trump and his secretary of state was Mike Pompeo. That disagreement on the Italian choice has not diminished under the Biden Administration, which continues to support a strategy to contain Chinese expansionism in key sectors such as 5G telecoms, semiconductors. The two executive arms of Biden’s China strategy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Council head Jake Sullivan, are not two doves.
After more than two years of vacancy in their embassy in Via Veneto, the Americans had a lot to make up for, in terms of image and public relations. Moreover, Italy was not the only one to suffer an absurd delay in the appointment of the new ambassador: India received a similar treatment, the new American ambassador in Delhi was recently appointed and with a similar delay.
Now that the offense is repaired, Washington can start again. The Biden administration has one more argument than Trump. In the four years in which the Conte-Xi Memorandum has been in force, the benefits for Italy are all to be demonstrated, according to Washington’s thesis. Italy has not been submerged by new Chinese investments or by a consequent creation of wealth and employment. Indeed, two countries that have not joined Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, such as Germany and France, have continued to be prime destinations for Chinese capital.
An article by the Bloomberg press agency, signed by Chiara Albanese, pointed out that recently, if Italy has cashed in a new investment of strategic value, this one came not from the People’s Republic of China but from the island of Taiwan: the announcement of a US$400 million operation in semiconductor manufacturing, where Taiwan is the world leader.
The forthcoming expiry of the Memorandum signed by Conte in 2019 therefore figures at the top of the agenda of US-Italy bilateral issues. According to the same Bloomberg report, the Prime Minister would have liked to announce the non-renewal of that agreement already at the G7 in May, but perhaps held back by resistance from the majority of her. An invitation from Xi Jinping for a visit by Giorgia Meloni to Beijing is also at stake. If the Italian premier has decided to follow the advice coming from Washington, would it be more diplomatic to announce it before, during, or after a visit to Beijing? There is perhaps no painless solution to undoing what was a highly controversial choice from the start. And in any case, calendar in hand, it is very probable that Meloni wants to visit Washington first, and then Beijing: so that it is clear which side she is on.
May 3, 2023 (change May 3, 2023 | 00:29)
© Time.News
#mission #MarkellCorriere.it #ambassador