Premier Li Keqiang met with visiting President of Italy Sergio Mattarella on Feb 23 in Beijing.

Recognizing Italy as an important European partner to China, Premier Li expressed his hopes of promoting bilateral pragmatic cooperation, cultural exchange and coordination in international and regional issues.

He also urged Italy to push the European Union to fulfill its promise in Article 15 of China’s Protocol of Accession to the WTO.

China is willing to connect a development strategy with Italy, promote bilateral trade and investment, cooperate on academic research and expand the exchange of students and interns, the Premier said.

Mattarella appreciated the great potential of cooperation and wide-range consensus of both countries. He said Italy is willing to expand cooperation on infrastructure, technology, environmental protection, innovation, trade and investment.

He also said Italy would like to play a helpful role in the Sino-EU relationship.