Place of honour for Africa on Italian G7 agenda - Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 29 - The African continent will have a place of honour on the agenda of Italy's duty presidency of the G7 in 2024, said Premier Giorgia Meloni at the Italy-Africa summit in the Senate in Rome on Monday.
    Italy is making a "precise foreign policy choice, which will lead to giving Africa a place of honour on the agenda of our G7 presidency," said Meloni, addressing the 25 African leaders and representatives of the European Union institutions present at the summit.
    Italy, she added, is "committed to demonstrating that we are aware of how interconnected the destiny of our continents is, and that it is possible to imagine and write a new chapter in our relations involving cooperation between equals, that is a long way removed from any predatory temptation and charitable approach," she added.
    Meloni said Italy's so-called Mattei Plan, the planned new strategic partnership with African countries to address the root causes of irregular migration and turn Italy into a sort of hub for energy supplies from Africa to Europe as the continent tries to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas supplies after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, can count on a budget of 5.5 billion euro including "loans, grants and guarantees".
    Of this amount, Meloni said "about 3 billion euro (will come) from the Italian climate fund and 2.5 billion from the development cooperation fund".
    "Pilot projects" contemplated under the plan and pre-anounced by Meloni in an interview with TG1 on Sunday evening include the creation of a vocational training centre on renewable energy in Morocco, education projects in Tunisia and projects giving greater access to health care in Ivory Coast.
    Tunisia and Ivory Coast represented respectively the second and third most common country of origin of migrants and refugees arriving in Italy by sea in 2023.
    "Sharing is one of the cardinal principles of the Mattei Plan and the work of this summit will be decisive in enriching the path," said Meloni, adding that other projects are also foreseen in Algeria, Mozambique, Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya. (ANSA).