“I think Italy can also play an important role in [Chinese] relations with the European Union to attempt to create trade relations that are as balanced as possible,” Meloni said, according to the sources.
Italy and the EU as a whole have a significant trade deficit with China.
“It’s necessary to [figure out] how to also guarantee trade that continues to be free because to do so we need, above all, the system of rules in which we operate to remain stable,” said Meloni.
Meloni is on her first official trip to China since becoming Italy’s first woman prime minister in 2022.
“So, thank you for this opportunity,” she said.
“With this trip we are launching an action plan that we have signed with the [Chinese] government.
“[The plan] defines the next three years of our bilateral cooperation with the clear aim of enhancing the work we have already done, but also of exploring new forms of cooperation working, at the same time, towards balancing trade relations.”
Meloni is in Beijing after her government last year pulled out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), having been the only G7 country to sign up in 2019.
The BRI is the huge infrastructure program that seeks to build of sort of modern-day Silk Road.
On Sunday Meloni met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang.
ANSA
