Giorgia Meloni is in China for the first time since she became prime minister as she seeks to improve economic ties.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has hailed China as an “important interlocutor” in managing global tensions as she met Chinese President Xi Jinping in efforts to “relaunch” ties with Beijing.

“There is growing insecurity at an international level, and I think that China is inevitably a very important interlocutor to address all these dynamics,” she told Xi on Monday at a meeting at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

The two countries must “think together on how to guarantee stability, how to guarantee peace”, Meloni said.

Meloni is visiting China for the first time since she took office nearly two years ago and has pledged to “relaunch” ties strained by her country’s departure from Beijing’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure project late last year.

The Chinese president, in turn, hailed “long-established, friendly” ties between Beijing and Rome.

“Both sides uphold tolerance, mutual trust and mutual respect with each choosing its own development path,” he said.

Balanced trade relations?

In 2019, Italy became the only member of the Group of Seven industrialised democracies to join Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is building transport and digital infrastructure to link Asia, Africa and Europe.

And while Italy eventually left the infrastructure investment scheme last year under pressure from the United States over concerns about Beijing’s economic reach, Rome signalled it still wanted to forge stronger trade ties with the world’s second largest economy.

The Italian prime minister told Xi she hoped to “create trade relations that are as balanced as possible”.

Meanwhile, European Union trade policy has become increasingly protective over concerns that China’s production-focused development model could see it flooded with cheap goods as Chinese firms look to step up exports amid weak domestic demand.

In July, the European Commission confirmed it would impose preliminary tariffs of up to 37.6 percent on imports of electric vehicles made in China, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.

Chinese officials have warned of a possible trade war should Brussels not back down.

Beijing is also lobbying EU member states to oppose more tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles in an October vote although Italy, Spain and France have indicated they would back the tariffs.

“Both sides face important opportunities for mutual development,” Xi told Meloni at the start of their meeting. “If countries are connected, they will advance together. If they are closed, they will retreat.”

“China and Italy should uphold the spirit of the Silk Road, … so that the bridge of communication between East and West through it can rebound into a new era.”

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the country’s presidential election on Sunday after securing more than 50% of the vote, although the opposition contends that the results are not accurate.

The National Electoral Council said at around midnight that Maduro received 51% of the vote, while the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González, had 44% support, according to The Associated Press.

Elvis Amoroso, head of the National Electoral Council, said the results were based on 80% of voting stations and represented an irreversible trend.

Despite Maduro being declared the winner of a third term, the opposition claimed victory, setting up a showdown with the government over the results.

EXPERTS FEAR VENEZUELA’S MADURO COULD STEAL SUNDAY’S ELECTION AS OPPOSITION LEADS IN POLLS

The electoral authority, controlled by Maduro loyalists, did not immediately publish the results from each of the 30,000 polling booths across the country, impeding the opposition’s ability to challenge the results after alleging it only had data for about 30% of the ballot boxes.

“The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” González said.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado claimed González’s margin of victory was “overwhelming.” Machado said the opposition had voting results from about 40% of ballot boxes across the country and that more were expected overnight.

Officials and lawmakers in the U.S. and elsewhere expressed skepticism about the validity of Venezuela’s presidential election results after Maduro was declared the victor.

Speaking in Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has “serious concerns” about the announced outcome.

Blinken said the U.S. feared the result did not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people, and called for election officials to immediately release the full results. He also said the U.S. and the international community would respond accordingly.

VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS’ BARBARIC CRIMES COME AS MADURO REFUSES TO TAKE BACK ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM US

The opposition’s presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez waves as he leaves the polling station with his wife Mercedes Lopez, center, and daughter Mariana after voting in presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP)

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio wrote on the social media platform X that the “Maduro regime in #Venezuela has just carried out the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history.”

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font also wrote on X that “the delivery of the results of this transcendental election in Venezuela must be transparent, timely and fully reflect the popular will expressed at the polls.”

“The international community, of which Chile is a part of, will not accept anything else,” he said.

Opposition representatives in Venezuela said tallies they collected from campaign representatives at 30% of voting centers in the country showed González defeating the president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.