(Adnkronos) – China’s foreign minister Wang Yi is “extremely interested” in the possibility of direct flights from Beijing to Venice to boost tourism, his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday.
“With regard to tourism, I have requested that we work together to establish direct flights between Beijing and Venice,” Tajani told reporters at a joint press conference with Wang in Rome.
“There is already a Shanghai-Venice flight, and I found the minister (Wang) to be extremely interested and open to cooperation, owing to the extraordinary importance of commercial flights,” Tajani added.
Tajani and Wang on Wednesday co-chaired the 12th Italy–China Intergovernmental Committee at Villa Madama, which looked at bilateral relations and opportunities to cement cooperation in an array of areas – especially rebalancing trade and economic exchange.
The Italy–China Intergovernmental Committee is the main tool for advancing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership sealed in 2004, which with together with the Italian government’s “continued commitment”, has “progressively strengthened” ties with China, according to a foreign ministry statement.
The Intergovernmental Committee meetings are held alternately in Italy and China and the previous session took place in Beijing on 4 September 2023, the statement noted.
