Biden And Meloni Expected To Discuss Belt And Road In White House Bilat

15:00 ET 20:00 BST: President Biden will host Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House today with Bloomberg reporting that, “Meloni is looking to build up a relationship with Joe Biden" by "pledging to break with China,” on participation in the Belt and Road Initiative project - due to renew automatically at the end of the year unless action is taken.

• Bloomberg writes Italy's BRI participation makes it an outlier among the G-7 and has raised, "persistent questions about where Rome’s main loyalties lie.”
• According to Bloomberg, “Meloni’s team plans to finesse Italy’s withdrawal by promising China other exclusive investment deals [and] plans to loop Biden into her strategy.”
• Politico reported in May that a Meloni pivot on the BRI, "would represent a dramatic turnaround in relations between Italy and China, planting Meloni firmly in the camp of Sino-skeptic countries led by U.S. President Joe Biden."
• White House NSC Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters yesterday on the prospect of Italy leaving the BRI: “That’s their sovereign decision… But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that more and more countries around the world are seeing the risks…”