Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani is headed to China, seeking to boost economic ties while also calling on Beijing to help efforts towards peace in Iran and Ukraine, AFP reports.

Tajani, a senior member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government, was due to meet with China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao and foreign minister Wang Yi later today in Beijing, his office said.

“We’re working to support our companies so they can operate more and more in such an interesting market as the Chinese one,” Tajani said in a video posted online as he departed.

“And of course I will ask China and the Chinese government to lend a hand in building peace in the Middle East and also in Ukraine.”