Italy wants to become the first G7 country to endorse China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) and plans to do so before the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said. “I hope very much we can complete a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China within 2018,” Di Maio told reporters in Beijing at the end of a two-day visit. His next trip would be in early November for the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. Di Maio is the 32-year-old leader of the anti-establishment right-wing Five-Star Movement (M5S).

More than 80 countries have already signed MOUs to work with Beijing on the BRI, the most recent being Greece last month. But they have yet to be joined by any of the Group of 7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States.

Beijing was keen to sign MOUs with Britain and France when British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron visited China earlier in the year, but neither of the visiting leaders put pen to paper, and Macron said the Belt and Road plan should not be a “one-way” project. There are also concerns that China’s flagship project does not meet international standards and is an attempt by Beijing to extend its geopolitical influence.

Di Maio said that Italy would also like to increase mutual investment with China, regardless of the fact that the European Union and several of its key members, including Germany, France and Britain, have recently been paying Chinese investments much more scrutiny. “I believe we could find common ground to work together,” Di Maio said. Commenting on the ongoing trade war between China and the United States, the Deputy Prime Minister said the Italian government did not support unilateralism in trade and favored multilateralism. “Italy is a big exporter. We would not like to see such measures,” he said. Italy had a USD17 billion trade deficit with China in 2017, the South China Morning Post reports.