Otto Lanzavecchia

“We absolutely have to avoid dividing the world into pro-China and anti-China blocks – we must not fall into a repetition of the Cold War.” Thus spoke Fiona Hill, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution and world-class expert, in an interview to Formiche.net. Nonetheless, recent developments indicate that Dr. Hill’s concerns are quickly becoming reality – at least as far as…

On Wednesday, when prime minister Giuseppe Conte finally returned from Brussels after securing €209 billion to aid Italy’s economic recovery, senators from the governing majority greeted him with a long applause. Mr. Conte declared that “the EU has lived up to its history,” praised his majority and members of the oppositions alike, and underlined that it fell upon Italy to…

Silvio Berlusconi’s party Forza Italia (“go, Italy!”) suffered a setback on Wednesday, as three MPs defected to enter a somewhat banner-less mix of colleagues. This happened as the party, which has been losing its relevance slowly but steadily over the past years, is being galvanized by a set of victories handed to its 83-years-old leader. Forza Italia qualifies as the…

The two-day summit in Brussels has stretched into its fourth day as European leaders dispute over the size of the recovery fund, a €750 billion project meant to pull the eurozone out of its worst economic crisis yet following the economic downfall wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. The conflict pits the so-called “frugal five” – Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and…

Un’ex spia saudita è ricercata dal governo del principe Mohammed bin Salman con l’accusa di essersi intascato almeno un miliardo di dollari durante gli anni prestati al servizio della corona Al Saud. A raccontarlo è il Wall Street Journal, con un’inchiesta che ha acceso i riflettori sulle occulte operazioni di intelligence di Riad, nonché sui rapporti sauditi con gli Stati…

During a question time session called for by opposition member Giancarlo Giorgetti, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio finally cleared the air about Italy’s position on the current Chinese takeover of Hong Kong. Following a year’s worth of protests – ironically driven by Beijing’s interference in the semi-autonomous city’s legislation – Chinese authorities recently passed a highly controversial security law, de…

Lately Europe has been reconsidering its technological dependence from China. Britain is thinking of banning Chinese tech from its communications infrastructure, France has advised citizens against buying it, and now TIM, a major Italian telecoms company, ignored tech giant Huawei in a bidding race to build its core 5G network in Italy (and Brazil). These events follow pressure from Washington,…

The two parties currently ruling Italy under a coalition government have taken opposite stances over the adoption of Chinese tech, following security concerns related to the building of the nation’s next-gen telecoms standard widely known as 5G. A fiery debate on Monday night resulted in the ministers’ agreement to use the State’s so-called “golden power” to intervene in the acquisition…

Italian defence minister Lorenzo Guerini travelled to Ankara in his first post-lockdown trip to meet with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar. Mr. Guerini called for increased collaboration in a series of dossiers, common to the EU and Turkey as well as NATO, which have been piling up during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The most sensitive matter to require the diplomats’…

“The decision on whether to use the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is, and remains, an Italian one. But we didn’t create it to leave it unutilised.” Thus spoke German chancellor Angela Merkel as her country began its semester at the rotating presidency of the European Union. To which prime minister Giuseppe Conte replied, rather coldly: “I respect Angela Merkel’s opinion,…