Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, after pledging to “relaunch” ties strained by her country’s departure from Beijing’s vast Belt and Road Initiative late last year, APA reports citing AFP.
Meloni arrived in Beijing on Saturday on her first visit to China since she took office nearly two years ago.
She sat down with Xi for talks on Monday afternoon at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a live AFP TV feed showed.
Meeting Li Qiang Sunday, she said the visit would “relaunch our bilateral cooperation”.
The pair then signed a joint Italy-China action plan that emphasised the importance of “ensuring that commercial relationships are balanced and mutually beneficial”.
According to the document, that meant “companies can operate on equal terms in a spirit of fair competition and free trade”.