FILE PHOTO: Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends a European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium June 27, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo ROME/BEIJING - 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, Italian news agency ANSA reported. Meloni 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", ANSA reported. The action plan will aim to experiment with new forms of cooperation, she added. 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.
She also attended an Italy-China business forum, to which companies including Italian tyre-maker Pirelli, energy group ENI, defence group Leonardo, wine producers and several Italian luxury fashion groups such as Dolce & Gabbana were invited. The forum gives "another signal of the mutual interest..
. (to) balance more our interests, our commercial exchange," she said. Meloni is expected to raise Chinese overcapacity with Chinese officials, as well as Chinese eco.