Italy's Meloni vows to 'relaunch' cooperation with China

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.

Later in the day Meloni said that an industrial cooperation memorandum signed by Italy and China includes strategic industrial sectors such as electric mobility and renewables.

Li Qiang pointed to "mutually beneficial cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in the fields of shipbuilding, aerospace, new energy, artificial intelligence," in a statement released by his office.

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.

On Sunday, Meloni 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 economic support for Russia in its war with Ukraine.

"China and Italy should adopt a win-win mentality and increase trade and investment cooperation, making cooperation even more dynamic and sustainable," said Li at the opening of the forum, according to a video shared by Meloni's office.