Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s first major event of Italy’s G7 presidency got off to a rocky start after the cornerstone plan of her summit on Africa was criticized for failing to include African nations in its planning. The plan, which includes more than $6 billion in investments, credits, gift operations, and guarantees — including building a training center on renewable energy in Morocco, education projects in Tunisia, and other projects in Algeria, Mozambique, Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya — was not well received by the African leaders in attendance, who said that they had not been consulted in the formation of the plan. African Union Commission Chairman and former Prime Minister of Chad Moussa Faki Mahamat responded to the promises Meloni laid out with skepticism. “African countries would have liked to have been consulted before Italy rolled out its plan,” he said during his address on Monday. He also said any agreement needed to be made on liberty and consensus with no party imposing anything on the other. Italy’s first African-born parliamentarian Aboubakar Soumahoro, who is deputy and coordinator of the parliamentary intergroup for Sub-Saharan Africa, also criticized the plan.
SOURCE: CNN
