Original title: Italian Prime Minister visits Algeria to strengthen energy cooperation
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, January 23. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the North African country Algeria from 22 to 23. Energy cooperation is an important topic of the trip.
Meloni is due to meet Algerian President Abdel-Majid Tebrun.
On November 9, 2020, people walk in the center of Algiers, the capital of Algeria.Xinhua News Agency
Algeria has now replaced Russia as Italy’s largest gas supplier. The Italian “Courier” quoted the Algerian ambassador to Italy as saying on the 21st that the Algerian side hopes to “go a step further” and make Italy a hub for Algeria’s natural gas exports to Europe.
In April 2022, during the visit of then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to Algeria, the Algerian oil and gas company signed an agreement with the Italian company Eni, and Algeria will increase its natural gas exports to Italy through the trans-Mediterranean pipeline from the autumn of the same year. Draghi said at the time that the agreement would reduce Italy’s dependence on Russian gas.
On April 20, 2010, two staff members waited for customers to visit at the 16th International LNG Exhibition held in Oran, the second largest city in Algeria.Published by Xinhua News Agency (photo by Mohammad Qadri)
In July last year, the Algerian oil and gas company signed a gas supply agreement with major energy suppliers in Italy, France and the United States. Analysts said that as the geopolitical situation becomes tense, many European countries hope to strengthen cooperation with Algeria, Africa’s largest natural gas producer, to promote diversification of energy supply and reduce dependence on Russian natural gas.
In addition to energy cooperation, it is expected that during Meloni’s visit to Afghanistan, the two sides will also discuss the issue of illegal immigration. In recent years, the wave of smuggling in Europe has intensified, and the calls against accepting illegal immigrants in Italy have become increasingly louder. The new Italian government led by Meloni has taken a tougher stance on cracking down on illegal immigration. Many of the illegal immigrants who smuggled into Italy came from North African countries such as Algeria and Tunisia. (Chen Lixi)