(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 9 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday called for the removal of China's barriers to Italian products and expressed the hope that Chinese investments in Italy will increase during a meeting with Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.
    During talks with the premier, Mattarella said trade relations between China and Italy had doubled between 2016 and 2022 but were still below their potential and called for more balanced exchanges and an increase in Chinese investments in Italy.
    "We have an exchange that over six years, between 2016 and 2022, has doubled from 38 billion to 74 billion" euros in 2022, stressed Mattarella.
    "With two observations: the first is that it is still below potential and thus the will to increase the commercial flow; the other is the need to rebalance the development of import-export trade relations".
    In 2022, exchanges were worth nearly 74 billion euros but Italian exports to China only reached 16.4 billion euros while imports were nearly three times higher at 57.5 billion euros.
    Mattarella highlighted the need to rebalance trade relations, noting that Italian investments in China had grown significantly.
    The president said "we have very much at heart" Chinese investments in Italy while encouraging Italian investments in China which have quickly grown to reach 15 billion euros in 2023.
    The president expressed the hope that Chinese investments can also "grow quickly" as "they are also below their possible potential".
    Meanwhile during a meeting in Beijing with the president of the National People's Congress (NPC) Zhao Leji, Mattarella spoke about talks held on Friday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, saying they had registered "full harmony and a convergence of evaluations".
    "There is a growth in the will of reciprocal collaboration.
    "An ancient relationship that finds today a full and cooperative current expression on a political level and on an international vision that concerns the will for peace, multilateralism, open economic relations.
    "This is why this visit is very important for me", said the head of State, recalling that Premier Giorgia Meloni visited in July and that "such a close presence of our country's leading institutions is totally unusual", showing "how important it is for us to increasingly develop relations with China".
    Meloni travelled to China in July to boost co-operation with the world's second-largest economy and reset trade relations after Italy withdrew from China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive globe-spanning infrastructure scheme aiming to build a modern-day 'Silk Road' .
    During her first official visit to Beijing since taking power in 2022, Meloni announced that six agreements had been signed in fields ranging from industry to food safety and education.
    Meanwhile during Mattarella's visit, China and Italy forged 10 agreements and memoranda which were signed at a ceremony attended by the Chinese and Italian presidents as part of their participation in the Italy-China Cultural Forum.
    The agreements concern a range of sectors including the film industry and competition.
    And in a keynote speech at Peking University on Saturday, the president said China represents for Italy the first commercial partner in Asia and called for the removal of barriers hindering the entry of top Italian products into the Chinese market.
    "China is, for Italy, the first economic partner in Asia.
    "The constructive spirit that moves us calls for a balanced relationship enabling, with the removal of barriers hindering the access into the Chinese market of Italian products of excellence, to meet the expectations of Chinese consumers, increasingly demanding and mindful of quality ", Mattarella said.
    The president went on to say that "nobody in Europe, least of all Italy, imagines a season of protectionism".
    He noted that a "dialogue between Beijing and the European Union" that is "fluid, responsible and in-depth" including in political and strategic sectors, would represent "a value".
    Such dialogue is required by "complex issues that concern all of us", including the "safeguard and promotion of every person".
    "Highlighting principles that represent the protection of civilization, regardless of political, economic or social contexts", is in no way a form of interference, he noted.
    "It is rather a call - of universal value - towards behaviour that is coherent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which regards the entire international community", said Mattarella.
    In the speech, Mattarella also urged China to help end the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
    "China is one of the fundamental protagonists of international life.
    "I wish to express the expectation that it uses its great authority on the international scenario to reiterate its traditional position in support of the rules of cohabitation of the international community, working to end the brutal Russian aggression to the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the first step for a fair peace based on the principles of the United Nations Charter", said the president. (ANSA).