Italy welcomes Chinese ties

ROME — A cavalry escort usually reserved for royals. A tour of the Coliseum. A performance by Andrea Bocelli in a presidential palace that once housed popes.

The warm welcome President Xi Jinping of China received in Rome on Friday was that of an exalted ally — or, as critics say, a conqueror — as he began a visit that will culminate Saturday with the signing of Italy’s official agreement to participate in China’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure project.

Italy will become the first member of the Group of 7 nations to take part in the project, a sign of how a rising China is reshaping the world’s economic and geopolitical order.

“The ancient Silk Road was a tool of knowledge among people and to share mutual discoveries,” President Sergio Mattarella of Italy Chinese President Xi Jinping and Italian President Sergio Mattarella greet each other Friday inside the Quirinale Palace in Rome.

said Friday morning, standing next to Xi at the Quirinal Palace. “The new one must also be a two-way street.”

Mattarella also urged the Chinese to help protect the environment and show “respect for the rules of the market,” something many critics of China have said it ignores.

Xi spoke about the importance of strengthening ties and developing projects together. He assured the Italians, who are

desperate to open Chinese markets to Italian goods, that he wants a “commercial exchange that goes both ways and a flow of investments that goes both ways.”

The tightening relationship between China and Italy has worried U.S. officials, who tried to stop the deal, expressing concern that China’s economic expansion is a precursor to military and political ambitions.

Leaders of the European Union also have raised concerns.