Italian PM Giorgia Meloni for reviving ties with China

Rome/Beijing, July 28

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed on Sunday to “relaunch” cooperation with China, signing a three-year action plan during her first official visit to Beijing since taking office.

Meloni, who has led a right-wing government since 2022, made the announcement during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, as Rome seeks to improve trade ties with Beijing after it exited President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road infrastructure investment scheme last year.

The Italian leader said her five-day trip was a “demonstration of the will to begin a new phase, to relaunch our bilateral cooperation”. The action plan aims to experiment with new forms of cooperation, she added in a video shown Italy’s RAI state television network.

The industrial cooperation memorandum signed by Italy and China “includes strategic industrial sectors such as electric mobility and renewables,” Meloni said later in the day.

Meloni, who sees Chinese investment as a way to spur Italy’s anaemic economic growth, will meet Xi and China’s top legislator, Zhao Leji, third in the leadership hierarchy. — Reuters