2024-07-29 05:29:02
During her visit to China on Sunday (July 28), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni promised to “restart” cooperation with China and signed a three-year action plan.
This is Meloni’s first visit to China since becoming prime minister in 2022, and she made a commitment to repair bilateral relations when she met with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on Sunday afternoon.
“We certainly still have a lot of work to do, and I believe that at a time when the global situation is complex, these efforts are helpful and of great significance at the multilateral level,” Meloni said in his opening remarks.
Italy withdrew from China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative at the end of last year. Against the backdrop of trade frictions between the EU and China, Italy is now seeking to reshape its relations with Beijing, especially economic and trade relations.
Meloni said her visit showed “a willingness to start a new phase and restart bilateral cooperation.”
Meloni said that the industrial cooperation memorandum signed between Italy and China covers strategic industrial fields such as electric transportation and renewable energy.
Li Qiang pointed out that the two sides will strengthen “mutually beneficial cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in the fields of shipbuilding, aerospace, new energy, artificial intelligence, etc.” and will also continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation in humanities fields such as literature, art, film and television, and education.
Meloni believes that Chinese investment is one of the ways to stimulate Italy’s weak economic growth.
On Sunday, Meloni also attended the Italy-China Business Forum. She said that this forum provides another signal for the common interests of the two countries, thereby more balancing bilateral interests and commercial exchanges.
Invited companies include Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli, energy group Eni, defense group Leonardo, wine producers and several brands including Dolce & Gabbana (D&G). Italian luxury fashion group.
Li Qiang emphasized mutual benefit and win-win results at the opening ceremony of the business forum, and promised Italian entrepreneurs to further open the market, saying that China will create a transparent, stable and predictable institutional environment, guarantee national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises, and provide better conditions for enterprises from all over the world to invest and operate in China. More support and convenience.
During this trip, Meloni will also meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chairman of the National People’s Congress of China Zhao Leji. According to Reuters, Meloni is expected to raise the issue of China’s overcapacity and China’s economic support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
In addition, Italian President Sergio Mattarella will visit China again in October. The Italian Prime Minister and President visited China successively, which seemed to confirm the idea of repairing Italy-China bilateral relations.
In 2019, Italy joined the “One Belt, One Road” plan initiated by Xi Jinping and became the only country in the Group of Seven Western Countries (G7) to join the plan. This seemed to be a political victory for China. But the decision exposed Italy to criticism from EU countries and the United States, and Italy has said in recent years that the economic benefits promised by China have not been realized.
In December 2023, the new Meloni government quietly withdrew from the Belt and Road Initiative. Public opinion regarded this as a major blow to Xi Jinping’s global ambitions. China handled the incident in a low-key manner and did not criticize it publicly. The Chinese official media chose the euphemism of “Italy is considering not delaying the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative.”
During Meloni’s visit to China, Chinese state media and the English-language Global Television Network (CGTN) claimed that this high-level visit was intended to “clarify the misunderstandings about Italy’s withdrawal from the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative” and emphasized the importance of economic relations between the two sides. sex.
China is Italy’s second largest trading partner among non-EU countries after the United States. Italian foreign direct investment in China totals 15 billion euros, and more than 1,600 Italian companies are active in China, especially in the fields of textiles, mechanical engineering, pharmaceuticals, energy and heavy industry.
Recently, the EU decided to impose a temporary tariff of up to 37.6% on electric vehicles imported from China, and China launched a retaliatory investigation into European brandy and pork, indicating that the trade friction between Europe and China is heating up.
(This article is based on reports from Reuters and the Associated Press.)
1722281616
#Meloni #visits #China #signs #threeyear #action #plan #promising #restart #cooperation #China
