Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
It comes after she vowed to "rekindle" ties strained by her country's withdrawal from China's massive Belt and Road Initiative late last year.
Meloni arrived in Beijing on July 27 on his first visit to China since taking office nearly two years ago, AFP reported.
She spoke with Xi on the afternoon of July 29 at the Diaoyutai State Guest House.
At her meeting with Li Qiang on July 28, she said the visit "will resume our bilateral cooperation."
The two then signed a China-Italy Joint Action Plan, which emphasized the importance of "ensuring balanced and mutually beneficial trade relations."
According to the document, this means that "companies can operate under equal conditions in the spirit of fair competition and free trade."
During the talks, Li said Beijing wanted to steer its relations with Italy in a "more mature and stable direction", according to China's state news agency Xinhua.
Her government withdrew from China's Belt and Road Initiative in December. It was the only G7 country to join it.
Before taking office, Meloni said joining the initiative - a key pillar of Xi's drive to expand China's influence abroad - was a "mistake".
Italy's non-binding memorandum of understanding with China on its accession to the Belt and Road contained broad commitments for cooperation in logistics, infrastructure, finance and the environment.
But details were scarce and a lack of transparency fueled mistrust among Italy's allies.
Since then, Meloni's government has been trying to improve relations with China, Italy's second-largest non-EU trading partner after the US.
Speaking alongside Li at an Italy-China business forum on July 28, Meloni said he wanted to ensure that "our trade relations are increasingly fair and beneficial to all". | BGNES
