Yesterday the premier Giorgia Meloni she was in Libya to re-establish relations with the tormented North African country. Following the excellent relations with Washington and collaboration with France in various sectors, not least the sharing of the supply of a missile defense system to Ukraine (Samp-T), the Italian government has decided to take the initiative to try to re-establish commercial supremacy in the former Italian colony.
Italy, strengthened by an investment package of 8 billion dollars, has managed to convince all the parties that count Tripoli e Benghazi. The two cities representing power exactly divided in two between the president of the provisional government (Government of National Unity) under UN aegis, Abdulhamid Dbeibah in Tripoli and Fathi Bashagha in Benghazi, an area to the east known to be under the control of the general Kalifa Haftar.
Before the Italian delegation flew to Tripoli, intense diplomatic and intelligence work was done to guarantee security, but above all the approval bipartisan of agreements to be signed. A meeting was also scheduled with Generalissimo Haftar and some representatives of the Benghazi government. Unfortunately Haftar was absent for private reasons: he is in France for some health checks.
Italy will invest 8 billion dollars in two fields offshore and will provide the Libyan coastguard with five EU-funded lookouts to fight irregular immigration. Comprehensive commercial collaboration agreements and memoranda were also signed.
Meloni with the CEO of Eni, Claudio DeScalzi, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi and foreign affairs, Antonio Tajani they met representatives of the legitimate government of Libya, as well as the president of the NOC, the local oil extraction company.
On the sidelines of the meetings, Meloni commented on the important day as follows: "Libya is an absolutely strategic economic partner for us, our commercial relations have continued to consolidate, as evidenced by the increase in the volume of trade by 80 percent. Italy remains Libya's first partner and first customer".
on the fight againstclandestine immigration"Cooperation on the issue of contrasting irregular migration flows is a central dossier in bilateral relations, despite the efforts of the Libyan authorities and those made by the Italian government, the numbers remain high (over 50% come from Libya”.
On democratic elections in Libya: “We are linked by a common history of centuries, by a bilateral cooperation that can be expanded and deepened in numerous sectors. Libya knows that it can count on Italy in terms of political stabilization, in the process of speedy elections, in terms of support for the economy, in terms of investments and that of all-round cooperation. In full respect of Libyan sovereignty, we believe that a national political compromise can help unblock the current stalemate, an agreement that should address the main issues: constitutional basis, distribution of resources, institutional structure that will lead the country to elections. Obviously Italy is committed to doing its part”.