Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, breathtaking sea view over the Persian Gulf. In this setting, in the warm UAE afternoon, Giorgia Meloni appears before reporters to sum up the double trip to India and the United Arab Emirates and does not hide her irritation at the press reconstructions (which she defines as “surreal”) on the action of the government regarding the shipwreck of Cutro, in which over 60 migrants lost their lives, including children. “Your ‘mute premier’ has come to answer your questions…” begins the Prime Minister, who replies with a polemical tone to those who have recently accused her of not putting their face on the tragedy in Calabria.
“I wonder – remarked the premier addressing journalists – if in this nation there really is someone who in good conscience believes that the government deliberately killed more than 60 people, including children. I ask you, looking into your eyes, if any of you think that the Italian government could save 60 people including a child of about 3 years and it didn’t. Let’s be serious”. Meloni defends Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi (“the opposition’s requests for resignation are no longer news”) and denies that his executive was responsible for the failure to provide assistance: “No emergency communication from Frontex has reached our authorities. We were not warned that this vessel was in danger of sinking. The route is not covered by non-governmental organizations and therefore the government’s provisions on NGOs have nothing to do with this affair”, insists the tenant of Palazzo Chigi, who announces its intention to celebrate the next Council of Ministers in Cutro to give a concrete signal on the issue of migrants.
Moreover, the regulation of flows and the stop to trafficking in human beings was one of the topics discussed during the bilateral meeting with the president of the Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Meeting of which Meloni considers herself satisfied “beyond expectations”. Two agreements have been signed: a declaration of intent which elevates relations between the two countries to the rank of a ‘strategic partnership’, and another on enhanced cooperation in the context of COP28. Italy also brings home a cooperation agreement between Eni and Adnoc, the Abu Dhabi oil giant, which will cover various areas of the energy transition: the agreement was signed by the CEO of Eni Claudio Descalzi and Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technologies.
Meloni thus mends with Abu Dhabi, after the ‘ripples’ of the last three years. Just think of the failure of the negotiations with Etihad on Alitalia, the stop on the export of aircraft bombs and missiles to the Emirates (removed in August 2021) and the closure of the Italian base of Al Minhad with only 30 days’ notice, on the eve of withdrawal from Afghanistan. Frictions now behind us, according to Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani who accompanied Meloni on this mission: “There was a relationship to mend after the clashes at the time of Conte and Di Maio” but now, observes the owner of the Farnesina, “the The climate is very positive, we have recovered well”. So much so that, sources of the Italian delegation say, Sheikh bin Zayed would have canceled the separate lunch in the presidential palace to take Meloni and Tajani to eat in a Japanese restaurant where many tourists and UAE citizens sat, accompanying them in the BMW SUVs driven by he and his brother Abdellah, the Gulf country’s foreign minister.
Above all, there are two foreign policy dossiers on which Meloni asks the sheikh for a hand: on the one hand, the stabilization of Libya and economic support for Tunisia; on the other, the pressure on Moscow to end the conflict in Ukraine and favor the negotiation process: “We have long discussed the situation and we believe that the Emirates can help facilitate this path to peace which must be based on a just peace for Ukrainians“, punctuates the tenant of Palazzo Chigi, assuring that cooperation with Abu Dhabi will “strengthen” more and more. On the future of Italian accession to the Chinese Silk Road, however, Meloni lets it be known that the theme “is still the subject of evaluation” and does not rule out an upcoming trip to Beijing.
Then, in a tweet: “I thank UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed for his warm welcome. A new, solid chapter in relations between Italy and the UAE which opens up many opportunities and will allow us, together, to achieve great results”.
He also fits into the away match in the Gulf the question of the appointments of state-owned companies and in particular of Eni, whose CEO Descalzi was present in the Italian delegation. For Deputy Prime Minister Tajani, the future of the CEO of the ‘six-legged dog’ is not in question, despite part of the majority (ie the League) asking for discontinuity. “Forza Italia is in favor of the confirmation, Berlusconi gives a very positive opinion. In my opinion, the CEO of Eni has worked very well. The government will decide, but as far as I am concerned, I can only give a positive opinion. Descalzi has always done well interests of Italy”, says the foreign minister, protagonist of a curtain call with his counterpart from the Emirates, a Juventus fan like him. “I gave bin Zayed a personalized black and white shirt. He told me that he still wears the ‘wounds’ from the 5-1 defeat against Napoli. Just think, I was at the stadium, I told him … “.
(by the correspondent Antonio Atte)