by Verità&Affari editorial team
(Teleborsa) – Strengthening Italy-Japan collaboration: this is the objective of the meeting scheduled today, Monday 5 February, between Premier Meloni and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kashida in Tokyo.
The collaboration between Italy and Japan “It is expanding on all fronts and my goal 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, the strengthening of industrial partnerships especially in high-tech sectors and the implementation of joint scientific research projects”, explains Meloni in an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, underlining that the bilateral meeting will serve to “carry out an in-depth exchange of opinions with Prime Minister Kishida, as Italy has just assumed the presidency of the G7, in continuity with the impressive work carried out by Japan in 2023”.
Answering a question about saying goodbye to the Silk Road, he reiterates that “the Memorandum on the Belt and Road Initiative is 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 tools to achieve better economic results for both, pursuing our priorities and encouraging a constructive development of relations between Italy and China. This without broad strategic sharing which entails belonging to the Belt and Road Initiative”.