A file photo shows China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at Rome's Fiumicino airport in a two-day visit to Italy in 2019. Photo: AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Italy on Thursday evening, starting a five-day whistlestop European tour amid increasing unease in Western capitals over the economic powerhouse’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Xi disembarked from his Air China Boeing 747 with his wife Peng Liyuan at Rome’s Fiumicino airport before being taken to their hotel, AFPTV reported.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese leader on Saturday for Italy to join the $1 trillion BRI, the first G7 member to do so.

Xi is to meet Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Friday during a visit that will include a tour of the Colosseum.

Around 1,000 additional police are patrolling the streets of the Italian capital for the state visit before Xi heads to Palermo, where his singer wife is believed to be keen on seeing the Teatro Massimo opera house.

NATO member Italy’s plan to join China’s ambitious maritime, rail and road venture, which critics say primarily benefits Chinese companies, has raised eyebrows among Western allies and within Italy.

Washington has warned its European allies that Chinese telecoms giant Huawei could use its next-generation 5G technology as a “backdoor” for espionage activities.

Meanwhile, Xi is expected to hold trade and climate talks on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The trio will be joined by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as they try to find “points of convergence between Europe and China,” Macron’s office said Thursday.

– with reporting by Agence France-Presse

Join the Conversation

38 Comments

  1. O artigo seguinte irá ilustrar várias técnicas de marketing altamente eficazes que, quando implementadas correctamente, podem ajudá-lo a desenvolver uma forte ligação com o seu público. Ao tirar proveito do e-mail marketing e rever continuamente sua estratégia de marketing com base nas necessidades de seus clientes, você pode estar bem no seu caminho para o sucesso.

  2. Thanks for the marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.
    I will make sure to bookmark your blog and may come back from now on. I want to encourage that you continue your great posts, have a nice afternoon!

  3. After I initially left a comment I appear to have clicked the
    -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I
    receive 4 emails with the exact same comment. Is there a means you are
    able to remove me from that service? Thanks!

  4. Hi, i think that i noticed you visited my web site thus i got here to “return the desire”.I am trying to to find issues to improve my web site!I assume its good enough to use some of your ideas!!

  5. Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles
    as long as I provide credit and sources back to your webpage?
    My website is in the exact same niche as yours and my visitors would definitely benefit from a lot of the information you
    present here. Please let me know if this alright with you.
    Cheers!

  6. Hi there I am so happy I found your web site, I really found you by accident, while
    I was looking on Yahoo for something else, Regardless I
    am here now and would just like to say thank you for a fantastic
    post and a all round exciting blog (I also love
    the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the
    minute but I have saved it and also included your
    RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do
    keep up the superb work.

  7. Wow, marvelous blog format! How long have you been running a blog
    for? you made blogging glance easy. The entire glance of your site is great, let alone the content!

  8. Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m
    inspired! Extremely helpful info specially the last part :
    ) I deal with such info a lot. I was seeking this certain information for a
    very long time. Thanks and good luck.

  9. Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive learn something like this before. So nice to seek out anyone with some unique ideas on this subject. realy thanks for beginning this up. this web site is something that is needed on the internet, somebody with a little bit originality. useful job for bringing one thing new to the web!