Beijing will be concentrating on its solar and EV exports to 50 leaders from the continent, rather than the infrastructure project promises of the past

Italian exports to China were worth $17.7 billion last year up from $14bn in 2019 while Chinese exports to Italy rose to $62bn from $34.2bn over the same period

According to a study by US researchers at AidData, Beijing’s lending focus has shifted from Belt and Road infrastructure projects to rescue finance

Analysts say BRI’s shift from investment intensive projects like dams to high-tech ones comes amid Xi's push to export Chinese ideas about governance

While India and the US are not formal treaty-bound allies, Washington wants New Delhi to be a strategic counterweight to China

Italy said the decision by a previous government to join the controversial initiative, which includes 150 countries, was “atrocious”

Italy signed up to the BRI four years ago under a previous government, becoming the only major Western country to have taken such a step

Analysts say Beijing is working to match the US’s global maritime power and find a way to sidestep western sanctions

China's investments in countries that are part of its Belt & Road scheme saw a small decline in the six months to June, with Russia, Sri Lanka and Egypt getting zero investments, the report said.

Official lending between 2000 and 2017 totalled more than $125 billion, the FT said, but no deals had been struck this year,

Opened to traffic on December 3, 2021, the China-Laos Railway stretches over 1,000km and links Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, to Laotian capital Vientiane

Beijing signed deals totalling $10.5 billion in new construction contracts in Iraq last year, part of its greater engagement towards the Middle East