In recent years, Italy and China have maintained a strong economic relationship despite Italy’s shift away from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s visit to Beijing highlighted Italy’s intention to continue fostering cooperation, with a focus on high-value sectors and enhancing trade.

Against the prevailing narrative of the The Belt and Road as a top-down strategy to spread China’s geopolitical influence, there is the BRI’s impact through its first decade as emanating «from the middle out and bottom up» via transport-enabled corridors traversing a large number of regions within and across national territories.