(Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she’s “very satisfied” with her trip to China, the culmination of a charm offensive she mounted after snubbing the country’s flagship Belt and Road initiative last year.
“I am very satisfied with the results and the exchanges we had at the highest levels,” she told Shanghai’s Communist Party chief Chen Jining Wednesday in the city, which hosts Italy’s largest business community in China. She added that rebalancing ties with China was the “right thing to do.”
Meloni met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang earlier in Beijing as part of her five-day trip. She touted China as a key player for peace efforts in Ukraine. She has Xi down as a potential key ally should former US President Donald Trump return to the White House in November, Bloomberg News previously reported.
Italian officials had been wary about the trip, which required extensive preparations after Rome pulled the plug on Xi’s investment pact after having signed up as the sole Group of Seven member.
Still, her visit received overwhelmingly positive coverage from China’s state media, which touted the far-right leader for making Italy “a bridge for East-West exchanges.”
--With assistance from Josh Xiao.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
