Premier of Italy Giorgia Meloni, who is making her first trip to Beijing since taking office, has promised to strengthen Italy-China diplomatic ties and commercial ties.
During the commencement of her five-day sojourn, Ms. Meloni engaged in discourse with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, culminating in the endorsement of a triennial strategy designed to enhance bilateral economic collaboration.
This initiative follows Ms. Meloni’s decision to extricate Italy from President Xi Jinping’s hallmark Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) the previous year. Rome stated at that point that Italy had not seen any real gains from the massive Chinese investment program.
Characterizing her visit as emblematic of a renewed intent to initiate a novel chapter in bilateral cooperation, Ms. Meloni underscored the commitment to reinvigorate Italy-China relations.
The two nations have also inked an accord targeting the augmentation of collaboration in the realms of electric vehicles and renewable energy sources.
Premier Li, in an official communiqué, highlighted the aspiration to amplify “mutually advantageous cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in the domains of shipbuilding, aerospace, new energy, and artificial intelligence.”
Italy is still the only well-known country in the West to have joined the BRI, which is one of China’s most ambitious infrastructure and trade projects. At the time, the US and a number of other significant Western nations expressed their disapproval of this alignment.
Since her ascendancy in 2022, Ms. Meloni has endeavored to steer Italy towards a more pro-Western and pro-NATO foreign policy stance, distinct from her antecedents.
Prior to retracting from the BRI, Ms. Meloni had denounced the preceding administration’s decision to participate in the initiative as “a grave error.”
Italy, under her leadership, has prevented a state-owned Chinese company from obtaining a majority stake in the tire manufacturing giant Pirelli. Rome has also supported recent duties imposed by the European Commission on Chinese-imported electric vehicles, which can amount to 37.6%.
The bilateral trade between Italy and China surged to 66.8 billion euros (£56.3 billion) last year, positioning China as Italy’s predominant non-EU trading partner, second only to the United States.
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