Italy, the only G7 member country that is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has formally notified Beijing of its withdrawal from the project, two government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni has said for months that he wants Italy out of the partnership, although in September he tried to downplay the impact of such a decision on bilateral relations between Rome and Beijing.

“In recent years, there were European countries that were not part of it [inițiativa] But “One Belt, One Road” was able to create more favorable ties [cu China] than we sometimes managed. The question is how to ensure a win-win partnership apart from the decision we make on the BRI,” she said at the time.

In 2019, Italy became the first and so far the only member of the G7, a group of advanced economies, to join the Beijing initiative.

Maloney’s comments two months ago came after his defense minister, Guido Crosetto, in July described Rome’s decision to join the Chinese initiative as “cruel.”

“The decision to join the (new) Silk Road was an impromptu and brutal act” that boosted Chinese exports to Italy without having the same impact on Italian exports to the Asian country, he said in an interview published by the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

“The question today is how to withdraw (from the BRI) without damaging relations (with China). Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner,” added Crosetto.

China’s increasingly controversial One Belt, One Road project.

The BRI aims to connect China with the rest of Asia, Europe and Africa through major investments in infrastructure projects as part of the new Silk Road. But critics of the project say it is a tool through which China expands its geopolitical influence and drags Third World countries into debt.

Launched by Beijing with great fanfare in 2014 and a great success in its early years, the BRI has recently become highly controversial, especially in the context of deteriorating relations between the West and Beijing.

The Italy-China BRI partnership was due to expire in March 2024 and would have been automatically extended had the Italian government not notified Beijing 3 months in advance that it wished to withdraw.

China held its last BRI-related forum in October this year. Then Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing with a large delegation in the context of improving relations between Russia and China after the start of the war in Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the only European Union head of state or government to attend the event in Beijing where he met Putin.