The collaboration between Italy and Japan "is expanding on all fronts and my objective for the next few years is to support this important relaunch. I am thinking in particular of the launch of a structured political and security consultation mechanism, of the strengthening of industrial partnerships especially in high technology and the implementation of joint scientific research projects".
Prime Minister GiorgiaMeloni stated this in an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, on the day of her meeting with Japanese Prime Minister FumioKashida in Tokyo.
The Prime Minister explains that the bilateral meeting will serve to "carry forward an in-depth exchange of opinions with Prime Minister Kishida, having just assumed the presidency of the G7, in continuity with the impressive work carried out by Japan in 2023".
And you respond to a question on the farewell to the Silk Road by reiterating that "the Memorandum on the Belt and Road Initiative was signed by a previous government, in a different international context, and did not create the hoped-for benefits".
The decision not to extend the agreement, he clarifies, is accompanied by that of "redirecting collaboration with Beijing towards more specific and suitable instruments to achieve better economic results for both, pursuing our priorities and encouraging a constructive development of relations between Italy and China. This without the broad strategic sharing which entails belonging to the Belt and Road Initiative".
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