ROME - Italy's parliament named Senator Vito Rosario Petrocelli from the populist Five Star Movement to head its bilateral friendship section with China as part of the global Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Lower House said in a statement Tuesday.

Petrocelli was one of a total of 94 senators and deputies named to as many bilateral friendship sections with countries around the world as part of the IPU, the global organization of national parliaments of which China is also a member.

Petrocelli, 55, chairs the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. He is from the central city of Matera and was elected on March 4 last year as part of the populist Five Star Movement led by Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, who also serves as labor and economic development minister.

Di Maio went to China on an official visit in September 2018, shortly after a mission by Finance Minister Giovanni Tria in August.

Also in August, Di Maio's industry ministry launched a China Task Force to strengthen bilateral trade and investments, the ministry said in a statement at the time.

The IPU currently has 178 member parliaments, ranging from huge nations like China, India and Indonesia, to the tiny states of Cabo Verde, San Marino and Palau.

More than 6.5 billion of the world's seven billion people live in countries whose parliaments are in the IPU, whose members work together to promote peace and cooperation, both in their own countries and at the international level, according to the organization's website.

Founded in Paris in 1889, the IPU also has 12 associate members, including the Arab Parliament, the European Parliament, and parliamentary organizations from Africa and Latin America.

The current IPU president is Mexican Senator Gabriela Cuevas Barron, who was elected in 2017. Italy's Senator Pier Ferdinando Casini chaired the IPU from 2005-2008, and was elected unanimously as its honorary president for life.