Giorgia Meloni and Xi Jinping (Photo by ERA/FILIPPO ATTILI)

China is currently not interested in supporting Russian industry, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said after meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on July 29.

"I think that China has no interest at this stage in supporting Russia's industrial capacity, even though, as we know, it doesn't intervene directly," said the head of the Italian government.

She noted that during her meeting with Xi, she discussed the issue of support for Russia in its aggressive war against Ukraine "very clearly." The leaders also "jointly considered what interests each has."

"President Xi said yesterday that China always works towards peaceful coexistence between peoples, and here I would like to see steps being taken in this direction," Meloni said, adding that China can play a major role in ending the Russian-Ukrainian war.

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