Why Italy is signing up for BRI and Washington is fuming

Editor's note:TomFowdy, who graduated from Oxford University's CHINA Studies Program and majored in politics at the Durham University, writes about international relations focusing on CHINA and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is set to sign a memorandum of understanding in the view of participating in Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a scheme which will invite large scale infrastructure investments into his country.

When queried about the program, Conte stated that he believed Italy could benefit from being part of the “maritime silk road” component of the initiative, setting out that it “represents a new opportunity for our country.”

When faced with questions about Washington's negative response to this news, he dismissed them by noting “it won't mean that the next day we will be forced to do anything. It will allow us to enter into this project and have a dialogue” and vowed to continue “strategic dialogue” with the United States.

America's negative comments painted quite a scene. The official Twitter account for the National Security Council hit out at Rome and said the BRI will “bring no benefits for the Italian people,” accusing CHINA of “predatory lending.”

However, in electing for such a dismissive and abrupt response, voices in D.C. fail to comprehend the reasoning behind Italy's decision altogether.

With Rome suffering from a long term economic crisis and decline, it recognizes that by positioning itself as a new hub for commerce heading up through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and through the Mediterranean, it has a golden opportunity to transform itself. Petty and bitter comments from the U.S. cannot thwart these incentives.

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (L) participate in a joint news conference at the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, July 30, 2018. /VCG Photo

Italy is a country that has seen better days, far better days. It has never recovered from the aftermath of the Eurozone financial crisis which has taken a deep and agonizing toll on its economy. Gross domesticproduct is over 400 million U.S. dollars less than what it was at its height in 2008, and in late 2018 the country officially entered recession again.

Unemployment continues to stand at nearly 10 percent, the third highest in the European Union behind Greece and Spain. As these unfavorable factors cloud the country's mood, Rome has been engaged in a prolonged feud with Brussels over an eye-watering national debt.

Young people are vacating the opportunity-scant country in droves – it has left locals with little confidence in the European Union.

Given this, there's a prevailing mood among Italians that the status quo has failed the country. Disillusioned with Europe, the country's populist leaders have sought new and diverse opportunities to restore prosperity to Italy.

Thus, CHINA and the Belt and Road Initiative have come into the picture. There are multiple reasons why this has proved to be the most convenient option. Firstly, infrastructure has become a cause of national alarm.

The total collapse of a bridge in Genoa the previous year constituted a major scandal and has only piled onto the country's political and economic crisis. For Rome, the BRI is perceived as the only international infrastructure project capable of meeting Italy's needs.

Secondly, geography is also highly complementary. The Maritime Silk Road of the BRI initiative involves a series of naval commerce links which proceed through the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea, into the Mediterranean and through Europe.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives for a meeting with Serbia's president in Belgrade, Serbia, March 6, 2019. /VCG Photo

There are few countries more adeptly shaped to benefit from this effort than Italy itself. The straight southward extending reach of the Italian peninsula places it right in the middle of the sea itself and creates a direct land bridge into Central Europe.

Greece, although also a big player in the BRI, is connected to the East, Italy connects swiftly to France, Switzerland, Austria and thus onward to Germany.

Therefore, if the Belt and Road scheme can connect Italy's ports to new international shipping routes, it means the country can evolve into an enormous hub of transcontinental trade – a gateway between East and West not too dissimilar to the role it played in the silk roads of old.

With this in mind, it is important to recognize why Italy sees so many real benefits in participating, something that the United States cannot understand, and is unwilling to account or provide an alternative for. Washington's forthright negative comments represent an effort to scaremonger Rome, and others for that matter, away from participating in the project.

But it is having no effect, simply because they are unwilling to provide any alternatives or incentives for Italy to consider otherwise. Instead, America has targeted Europe as a whole with coercive threats of tariffs, increased military costs and unilateral sanctions, sapping confidence in transatlantic ties like never before.

Overall, there seems to be an absence of logic in D.C. as to why countries are not taking any notice of it regarding CHINA. In this case, the U.S. has too much pride to recognize that the majority of nations in the world, not least Italy in its current situation, continue to see the BRI as being in their best economic interests, that it is ultimately an opportunity, not a threat. The U.S. has left itself locked outside, raging while being pressed up against the window.

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