A woman addresses an audience at a diplomatic event focused on strengthening Africa-Italy relations, highlighting cooperation and partnership opportun.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, views her country’s relationship with Africa as of strategic importance. In fact, her first foreign trip after she assumed office in 2022 was to Algeria, followed by Libya, Ethiopia, and Tunisia. Meloni’s interest in Africa is anchored on two primary things. Firstly, she believes that Africa holds innumerable commercial opportunities for Italian companies. Secondly, Meloni seeks to stem the flow of migration from the continent to Europe, something she campaigned on. To reinforce Italy’s connection with Africa, she recently visited Ethiopia. There, she participated in both an Italy-Africa summit and the African Union summit. In her address to the AU, she emphasized that Rome wants to build a relationship with the continent based on “trust and mutual respect.” At the center of this strategy is the “Mattei Plan,” which seeks to boost African development by funding projects across energy, agriculture, education, and infrastructure. Through this initiative, Rome hopes to achieve mutual economic benefits and, at the same time, discourage Africans from making the journey up north to Europe. Whether the initiative succeeds or not, African leaders may welcome Rome’s approach, which differs from that of the US.
African Business