Beijing, October 29th—Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, met here today with a multi-party study group of the Italian parliament members headed by Vito Petrocelli, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Senate.

Song said that Italy is an important member of the European Union (EU) and a good friend and good partner of China in the EU. China attaches importance to developing China-EU relations and is committed to working with the EU to build a partnership for peace, growth, reform and civilization. It is hoped that Italy will continue to play an active role to this end. Song expressed that the CPC is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with major Italian political parties, continuously enhance mutual understanding and political mutual trust, promote pragmatic cooperation between the two sides, and jointly lead the development of China-Italy relations.

Petrocelli said that Italy and China are ancient civilizations with a long history. Further strengthening mutual understanding is an important basis for the development of bilateral relations. All major Italian political parties are committed to strengthening friendly exchanges with the CPC and are ready to continue to achieve new developments in the relations between the two countries through inter-party exchanges.

Enditem