Italy’s Meloni says China ‘important interlocutor’ in managing global instability

Meloni arrived in Beijing on Saturday on her first visit to China since she took office nearly two years ago, pledging to “relaunch” ties strained by her country’s departure from Beijing’s vast Belt and Road Initiative late last year – Copyright AFP Pedro PARDO

Michael Zhang, with Peter Catterall

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed China as an “important interlocutor” in managing global tensions Monday as she met President Xi Jinping.

Meloni is in Beijing on her first visit to China since she took office nearly two years ago, pledging to “relaunch” ties strained by her country’s departure from Beijing’s vast Belt and Road Initiative late last year.

She sat down with Xi for talks on Monday at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

“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.

The two countries must “think together on how to guarantee stability, how to guarantee peace,” she said.

“Above all we need the system of rules in which we operate to remain stable,” she told Xi.

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.

Meeting Chinese Premier Li Qiang Sunday, Meloni said her visit would “relaunch our bilateral cooperation”.

The pair then signed a bilateral 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”.

During the talks, Li said Beijing was keen to push relations with Italy in a “more mature and stable direction”, according to a readout by Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Meloni’s administration withdrew from China’s Belt and Road Initiative in December, having been the only G7 nation to sign up.

Before taking office, Meloni said joining the initiative — a central pillar of Xi’s bid to expand China’s clout overseas — had been a “mistake”.

Italy’s non-binding memorandum of understanding with China upon joining Belt and Road had contained broad undertakings for cooperation in logistics, infrastructure, finance and the environment.

But details were scarce and the lack of transparency fuelled distrust among Italy’s allies.

Meloni’s administration has since sought to mend ties with China, Italy’s second-largest non-EU trading partner after the United States.

Speaking alongside Li at a business forum Sunday, Meloni said she wanted to ensure “our commercial relations are increasingly fair and advantageous for everyone”.