Xi to Meloni, ready to cooperate on electric vehicles and AI. Ukraine and UN reform also on the table

It was the highlight of the mission to China that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had with Xi Jinping . A closed-door meeting at Diaoyutai State House, the state residence where the president of the People's Republic receives foreign leaders, crucial for calibrating relations between the two countries. "There is a growing insecurity at the international level,' the Prime Minister told Xi Jinping during the face-to-face meeting, 'and I think that China is inevitably a very important interlocutor to deal with all these dynamics, starting from our respective points of view to reason together on how to guarantee stability, peace, free trade.

"The two leaders," reads a note issued by Palazzo Chigi after the face-to-face meeting, "shared the positive development of relations between Italy and China in the context of the 20th anniversary of the Global Strategic Partnership, emphasising the importance of balanced, mutually beneficial cooperation based on mutual trust. During the talks, the main topics of the bilateral relationship were discussed, from economic and trade issues to collaboration in the scientific and cultural spheres. The two leaders,' the document goes on to say, 'then addressed the priority issues on the international agenda, from the war in Ukraine to the risks of a further escalation of the situation in the Middle East. They also discussed the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Finally, President Meloni and President Xi dwelt on some of the major global governance issues of common interest, from Artificial Intelligence to the fight against climate change and the UN Security Council reform process.

China is willing to work with Italy "to promote the optimisation and improvement of traditional cooperation in economic and trade investment, industrial production, technological innovation and third-party markets, as well as to explore cooperation in emerging areas such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence". President Xi Jinping said this in his bilateral with Meloni, assuring - according to the state-run Cctv network - that Beijing 'welcomes Italian companies investing in China and is willing to import more high-quality Italian products'.

For Meloni, Italy can 'also play an important role in relations with the European Union' in the 'attempt to create trade relations that are as balanced as possible'. The 'road from Italy to China,' the premier had stressed a few hours earlier while inaugurating the exhibition on Marco Polo at the Millennium Museum in Beijing, 'has sometimes been an easy journey, sometimes more uphill, but that road has always been passable. It is up to us to keep it that way so that the economic and cultural relations that are the basis of our cooperation can continue to flow'.

"If it is true that the centuries-old bond that unites our two nations was born from courage and the ability to dare, then I also think that the best way to celebrate that history is by making that bond, which is first and foremost cultural and based on respect, more solid. And that is what we are here to do with our visit,' said the Prime Minister at the opening of the Marco Polo exhibition at the Millennium Museum in Beijing. "We are celebrating Marco Polo seven centuries after his death" and together with him "Matteo Ricci who helped the Chinese people open their horizons and understand Europe and the West," the Prime Minister added before visiting the exhibition, because "if Marco Polo had not dared to undertake a journey that until then was considered unimaginable, impossible, out of reach, if he had not challenged the unknown, history would probably have gone differently. So we remember Marco Polo, above all to remind ourselves that history is, after all, us. Especially when we are not afraid to dare. Especially when we pursue our convictions. Above all when we do not let ourselves be conditioned by the limits in which others believe. It applies to everyone and it applies forever'.