Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been in China since Saturday, July 27, a five-day visit that comes several months after Italy withdrew from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This emblematic policy of Chinese President Xi Jinping aims to build electricity and transport infrastructure around the world. With this visit, the Italian prime minister wants to reset economic relations with Beijing.
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From our correspondent in Beijing,
The official visit of Giorgia Meloni is part of a year marked by the 20th anniversary of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The Prime Minister Chinese Li Qiang and his Italian counterpart opened the seventh meeting of the China-Italy Entrepreneurs Committee in Beijing on Sunday afternoon, July 28, with more than 150 entrepreneurs from both countries present.
Giorgia Meloni said that, in the face of the complexity and instability of the current global situation, Italy and China must strengthen their global strategic partnershiptake advantage of their complementary advantages and strengthen their economic and commercial cooperation.
Moreover, Rome and Beijing are expected to increase their collaboration in areas such as shipbuilding, aerospace, new energy, artificial intelligence and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Contracts in perspective
Italy and China signed a three-year action plan on Sunday aimed at implementing past agreements and promoting new avenues of cooperation.
Giorgia Meloni also explained to the business leaders that the two parties had signed a memorandum of industrial collaboration that focuses in particular on electric vehicles and renewable energies. For her, these are ” sectors in which China has already been at the forefront of technology for some time and is sharing new frontiers of knowledge with its partners. »
In fact, Stellantis, a major automaker that includes Italy’s Fiat, announced in May that it had partnered with Leapmotor, a Chinese electric car startup, to begin selling electric vehicles in Europe.
Chinese interests
From the third plenum, held earlier this month, Beijing pledged to further open up Chinese markets. The regime also pledged to ensure foreign companies receive equal treatment with Chinese companies and to create a transparent business environment. This comes in response to criticism from foreign companies operating in the world’s second-largest economy.
Improving Sino-Italian relations can also, in Beijing’s eyes, help stabilise relations between China and the European Union, especially in the context of recent trade frictions.
Electric vehicles in particular have become the symbol of these growing tensions between Beijing and the European Union, which imposed a ban on… provisional customs duties up to 37.6% on electric vehicles made in China. The two sides have started talks to try to resolve the issue by early November.