Sun Chunlan, former vice-premier of China and president of the International Confucian Association (ICA), met with Romano Prodi, former Italian prime minister and former president of the European Commission, in Milan, Italy, on May 24. 

Sun expressed gratitude to Prodi for his contributions to Sino-Italian and Sino-European relations. She said that the ICA is an international academic and cultural organization dedicated to promoting cultural heritage and development and facilitating exchanges and mutual learning among different cultures.

Sun spoke of her expectation of collaboration with the China-Italy Charity Forum to engage in cultural exchanges and dialogues between their peoples aiming to enhance mutual understanding between the people of China and Italy.

Prodi, who is also the honorary chairman of the China-Italy Charity Forum, emphasized the importance of enhancing cultural exchanges and people-to-people interactions to deepen the friendship between Italy and China.

He particularly emphasized the need to strengthen exchanges among young people from Italy and China, as well as between Europe and China, to build a solid foundation of mutual understanding. He highlighted the need to leverage the power of charity to further instill the values of benevolence and love in people's hearts.

Both sides agreed to strengthen collaborations in education, youth and culture. Sun also met with key figures in sinology and academia to discuss the future of Confucianism in Europe.