The italian premier on her second day in China met with President Xi. This could be the beginning of a new course between the two countries
Mended rift with China? Who knows. Today italian’s Premier Giorgia Meloni met with the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, in Beijing. And one thing is certain, the mantra of her mission has not changed since yesterday when she saw her counterpart Li Qiang. And it has remained that of the need for ‘balanced and mutually beneficial cooperation’ between China and Italy, where ‘mutually’ should be read as the key word. Italy exited the Silk Road agreement, signed with Beijing in 2019 by the Conte government, because it realised it was losing out, and enormously. Meloni said this in no uncertain terms and repeated it throughout the events that engaged her in these first two days of her trip.
Of course the president also addressed the major international crises, from the war in Ukraine to the risks of a further escalation of the situation in the Middle East, to the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific, and she spoke about global governance, the challenges of new technologies, climate change, and the UN Security Council reform process.
But she always came back to the same point: let us start again from a new form of partnership, from the authentic spirit of the Silk Road, because the new one has not produced good results for Italy, so much so that in 2022 Italy’s trade deficit with China set an absolute record, -47 billion dollars, while China’s investments in Italy stopped well before Rome began to distrust them and actively ‘stop’ them, and they account for about a third of Italian investments in China. ‘It is a gap,’ Meloni said, ‘that I would like to see bridged in the right way. Our nation remains eager to cooperate, but it is crucial that our partners show genuine cooperation by playing by the rules, to ensure that all companies can operate in international markets on a level playing field. Because if we want a free market, that market must also be fair’. These are the conditions underpinning the six agreements signed, which cover various sectors: from industry to food safety to education to electric mobility and renewables. And then there is also Artificial Intelligence ‘which,’ said Meloni, ‘is destined to profoundly affect our social and economic fabric and radically change entire production segments. I know,‘ he continued, “that even in China there is a lively debate going on about what have been called ”new productive forces’, alluding, I imagine, precisely to the impact that artificial intelligence can have on productivity, as well as, I would add, on the creation and destruction of jobs. Each of us is developing a different approach, but I believe that beyond the different sensitivities, it is fundamental to develop a common reasoning, precisely in light of the impact that AI will have on the world of work, even for those professions with the highest specialisation’.
Meloni’s mission will end on Wednesday in Shanghai, with talks with the secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Chen Jining. And today she had two relaxing moments, if one can call them that: the premier attended a traditional birthday party with her daughter Ginevra and inaugurated the exhibition ‘Journey of Knowledge. Marco Polo’s Milione and its Legacy between East and West’, at the Millennium Art Museum in Beijing.
https://www.governo.it/it/articolo/intervento-del-presidente-meloni-al-world-art-museum-di-pechino/26323
https://www.governo.it/it/articolo/intervento-del-presidente-meloni-al-business-forum-italia-cina/26315
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