Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pledged to “relaunch” relations with China during her first official visit to Beijing since taking office. At the outset of her five-day trip, Ms. Meloni met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and signed a three-year plan aimed at enhancing economic cooperation between the two nations.

This visit follows Ms. Meloni’s decision last year to withdraw Italy from President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). At the time, Rome argued that the extensive Chinese investment scheme had failed to deliver tangible benefits to Italy.

Ms. Meloni described her visit as a “demonstration of the will to begin a new phase, to relaunch our bilateral cooperation.” She also announced that the two countries have signed an agreement to bolster collaboration on electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Premier Li, in a statement from his office, said that both countries aim to increase “mutually beneficial cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in the fields of shipbuilding, aerospace, new energy, and artificial intelligence.”

Italy was the only major Western nation to join the BRI, one of China’s most ambitious trade and infrastructure projects, a move that drew criticism from the US and other Western nations. Since assuming office in 2022, Ms. Meloni has pursued a more pro-Western and pro-NATO foreign policy compared to her predecessors. She had previously criticized the decision to join the BRI as “a serious mistake.”

“Every country which is a [BRI] member knows that China is first and they are second, and I don’t think Italy as a G7 member wanted to be grouped together with Russia, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia Pacific region at investment bank Natixis. “Without BRI [membership], Meloni is coming to China at a different level of engagement – less as a vassal and more as a partner,” she added.

Under Ms. Meloni’s leadership, Italy has blocked a Chinese state-owned company from taking control of the tire-making giant Pirelli. Rome has also supported the European Commission’s recent decision to impose tariffs of up to 37.6% on electric vehicles imported from China.

Two-way trade between Italy and China reached 66.8 billion euros (£56.3bn) last year, making China Italy’s largest non-EU trading partner after the US.