Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed, during her first meeting with her Chinese counterpart Li Qiang, to “strengthen and deepen” the dialogue between Rome and Beijing, her office announced on Saturday.

The meeting came on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, in light of growing speculation about the possibility of Italy withdrawing from the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative, or at least re-evaluating its participation in it.

Italy, which is heavily indebted, is the only one among the G7 countries that joined the trillion-dollar Chinese investment plan in 2019. The agreement between Rome and Beijing will be automatically renewed in March 2024 unless Italy withdraws from it by the end of 2023.

Critics of "Belt and Road", especially Western countries, see this initiative as an economic "Trojan horse" through which Beijing aims to gain political influence.

Meloni's office announced in a statement that Saturday's meeting with Li Qiang "confirmed the common determination to strengthen and deepen the dialogue between Rome and Beijing on fundamental bilateral and international issues."

Next year, the two parties will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of their conclusion of a strategic partnership that will constitute a “beacon for the growth of friendship and cooperation” between them, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Taiani, who visited Beijing earlier in September, considered that the initiative "did not achieve the results we had hoped for."

Meloni is likely to make a state visit to Beijing during the next few months, and analysts expect that she will then withdraw from the Chinese initiative, but at the same time with the possibility of strengthening other bilateral agreements between the two countries.

The meeting between Meloni and Chiang came on a day when the United States pushed, during the G20 summit, for an ambitious “corridor” project that would connect India and Europe, via railway and maritime transport lines passing through the Middle East, with a leading role for Saudi Arabia.

An initial agreement was signed on Saturday in New Delhi, between the United States, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, the European Union, France, Germany, and Italy, according to a statement published by the White House.