Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed to “relaunch” relations with China during her first visit to Beijing since taking office, announcing that she has signed a three-year plan to deepen cooperation.
“There is growing insecurity at an international level, and I think that China is inevitably a very important interlocutor to address all these dynamics,” she told Xi on Monday at a meeting at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
The two countries must “think together on how to guarantee stability, how to guarantee peace”, Meloni said.
Meloni is visiting China for the first time since she took office nearly two years ago and has pledged to “relaunch” ties strained by her country’s departure from Beijing’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure project late last year.
The Chinese president, in turn, hailed “long-established, friendly” ties between Beijing and Rome.
“Both sides uphold tolerance, mutual trust and mutual respect with each choosing its own development path,” he said.
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