China, Italy need to ‘expand common ground’: Chinese leader tells Italian premier

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Beijing and Moscow need to “expand common ground,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping told visiting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

It is the first in-person meeting between the two since Rome exited the Beijing-funded multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) last year.

“In the spirit of the ancient Silk Road,” Xi told Meloni, “China and Italy need to view and develop the bilateral relationship from a historical and strategic perspective, enable the international community to seek commonalities while resolving differences and expand common ground.”

Xi called for rejuvenating the ancient Silk Road as a “bridge of communication between the East and the West,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

Meloni has been on a five-day official visit to China since Saturday.

“With transformations of the world unseen in a century unfolding at a faster pace, exchanges and solidarity will help countries progress together, while seclusion and division will lead to retrogression,” said the Chinese leader.

Meloni met her Chinese counterpart Li Qiang on Sunday where the two sides signed a three-year action plan to implement past agreements and experiment with new forms of cooperation.

In 2019, Italy became the only member of the Group of Seven nations to join China's Belt and Road Initiative but exited the global infrastructure development project last year.

The trade volume between the two nations climbed to around $80 billion last year.

Early Monday, Meloni attended the inauguration of an exhibition, Journey of Knowledge: Marco Polo's Travels and His Legacy between East and West, at the Millennium Art Museum in Beijing.