CHINA’S “Belt and Road” infrastructure plan could be good news for Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Friday, confirming that he might sign an accord with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.

Xi is due to travel to Italy from March 22-24 and Conte said the two countries were looking to agree to a framework deal during the state visit, despite reports that the United States is concerned at the prospect of a key ally joining the venture.

“With all the necessary precautions, Italy’s accession to a new silk route represents an opportunity for our country,” Conte told a foreign policy seminar in the northern city of Genoa.

“It won’t mean that the next day we will be forced to do anything. It will allow us to enter into this project and have a dialogue,” he added.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to link China by sea and land with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the old Silk Road.

Conte said he planned to attend a BRI summit in China in April and promised to bring European Union trade standards to the ambitious project.

“This is a strategic choice for the country ... and such choices need coordinating with traditional partners. Dialogue with the United States, for example, is constant,” he said, dismissing suggestions Washington could penalize Italy.

A number of European Union states have signed BRI MOUs with China, including Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland and Portugal. If Italy signs, it would be the first Group of Seven major industrialized nation to do so.

(SD-Agencies)