Italy urges China to scrap ‘any kind of support’ for Russia

by Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter | 

 June 12, 2023 06:55 PM

 

Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping should cut all aid to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Italian official urged in the latest sign that China’s influence in Rome has eroded.

“As far as China is concerned, I believe that a country that submitted a number of points to build peace cannot and should not provide any kind of support to a country such as Russia that violated international law,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday.

Tajani delivered that rebuke alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken in response to findings from a British research team that identified brand new Chinese components in Iran-made drones used to attack Ukraine. The statement is the latest indication that populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni intends to anchor Italy within the transatlantic consensus, just three years after a previous Italian government joined China’s vaunted overseas infrastructure program.

“China’s commitment should be aimed not at strengthening Russia but, on the other hand, to favor peace,” Tajani said. "Therefore, I hope that it will go in that direction.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the campaign to overthrow the Ukrainian government last year with the apparent expectation of rapid success, but the resilient Ukrainian defense has strained Russia’s reserves of military equipment and personnel. Iran answered Putin’s call for reinforcements with a steady stream of attack drones for the winter bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and Ukrainian officials have protested the discovery of Chinese components in Russian weaponry, although Chinese officials reportedly have stopped short of providing weapons directly to Russian forces.

“To date, we’ve not seen that line crossed,” Blinken said. “At the same time, we have concerns about private companies engaged in the provision of technologies, including dual-use technologies.”

United States and European officials have launched a multi-pronged effort to dissuade Xi from opening his arsenals to Putin, amid a wider corrosion of China’s relationship with the U.S. and its democratic allies across Europe and the Indo-Pacific. Tajani’s visit to Washington comes on the heels of reports that Meloni intends to withdraw from the Belt and Road Initiative, which would reverse that diplomatic coup that Xi enjoyed when Italy became the only G-7 country to sign up for the Chinese project.

“It is possible to have good relations with Beijing, also in important domains, without them necessarily being part of an overall strategic plan,” Meloni said late last month.

Tajani emphasized that Italy is "a loyal country, serious, credible, and reliable” for the United States and its other allies.

“We found agreement on the actions to be taken in the Middle East and North Africa, in the Indo-Pacific area,” he said. “This transatlantic relationship, based on a common vision of NATO and trade exchanges that are very solid, will allow us to solve any issue that might happen, and we will do so as friends. And under an economic point of view, we are in total agreement.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/italy-china-support-russia