On May 7, 2004, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi met at his presidential palace with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council, who is paying an official visit to Rome, and the two sides held cordial and friendly talks.

Wen conveyed the greetings from President Hu Jintao to President Ciampi. He said that China-Italy relations have been developing smoothly. During this visit, the two sides will issue the first joint statement, establish a China-Italy Governmental Committee and sign a range of documents. The two countries enjoy strong complementarities in economy and great potentials for economic and trade cooperation. Their respective advantages in such fields as education, science and technology, culture and tourism could bring about closer exchanges and cooperation possible. With no fundamental differences between the two countries, both sides advocate multilateralism and an enhanced role of the United Nations (UN), stress cultural diversity and share political aspiration for deepened and expanded cooperation. China would like to strengthen its consultations and cooperation with the European Union (EU) countries such as Italy on key international issues.

Ciampi asked Wen to convey his good wishes to President Hu Jintao. He noted that Italy and China enjoy time-honored friendship. In recent years bilateral relations have undergone new developments. However, there are still great potentials for cooperation. Both sides should take effective measures to encourage and support enterprises of the two countries to invest in each other and conduct cooperation. As a permanent member of the Security Council, China has played a positive role in maintaining world peace and stability, which has been highly appreciated by Italy.

The two sides also exchanged views on counter-terrorism, the Iraqi situation, the Middle East peace process and other issues and agreed that the UN should play a significant role in resolving international disputes and responding to challenges faced by mankind.