Italy and China signed a three-year economic cooperation pact on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said after a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Meloni said during her state visit to Beijing that she wants to use the document to explore new possibilities for cooperation with China. However, the exact content of the text was not disclosed.
Meloni also said he wants to make trade relations with China “fairer”, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Last year, Italy’s trade deficit with China grew to more than €40 billion ($43 billion).
She also criticized the investment imbalance at an economic forum in Beijing on Sunday.
“Chinese investments in Italy account for about a third of Italian investments in China,” she said, adding that she would like to see this gap narrow.
Meloni landed in the Chinese capital on Saturday and will speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday.
Relations between Italy and China have been marred by disagreements recently, after Meloni told China that Italy was withdrawing from China’s largest infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, through which Beijing aims to strengthen economic ties with participating countries.
Italy was the only country in the Group of Seven major industrial democratic powers to join the geopolitical project in 2019, a decision taken by the previous government in Rome.
Italy announced that it was withdrawing because the economic expectations that membership brought had not been met.
