“The right not to have to migrate” also passes through food security. Meloni meets African presidents

Giorgia Meloni’s “Mattei plan” is enriched by another piece. After the summit on migration at the Farnesina with a conference by the heads of state of Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritania, Libya and Cyprus and the prime ministers of Libya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Malta, Jordan, Nigeria, Algeria and Lebanon, today, still in Rome, the opening of the FAO conference on food systems. Meloni made the connection between Sunday’s conference on migration and today’s summit directly, quoting Pope Francis during the plenary: “We must ensure the right not to have to emigrate, the possibility of living in peace and dignity in one’s own land. Food security is a fundamental step on this path”. The premier also spoke of the need to “create a non-predatory model of cooperation with African countries to guarantee them the possibility of living off their resources. Italy is one of the countries closest to Africa, which is not a poor continent but is full of resources”. So the promise for next year, when Italy will host the G7 in Puglia: “Food security will also be a priority on the G7 agenda during our presidency”.

If yesterday Meloni had several bilateral meetings with the governors who came to the conference, today’s event was an opportunity to a lunch with the heads of state and government of the Horn of Africa (the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Djibouti, Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed and the Vice President of the Republic of Kenya, Rigathi Gachagua).

To make the event even more heartfelt there is also Russia’s non-renewal of wheat deal which allowed the transit of Ukrainian production. “We urge Russia to reevaluate its decision,” Meloni said. “The war has had a terrible impact on the world distribution of food”. And they suffer it more than others Egypt and Tunisia, the main countries from which migrants leave for the coasts of southern Italy, which before the war imported over 90 percent of their wheat needs from Russia and Ukraine. Just to Tunisia Meloni is paying the most attention. A week ago he was there together with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to sign the EU-Tunisia memorandum of undestanding together with Tunisian President Kais Saied. Tunisia is the main gateway to illegally reach Italy and Europe. Also today, after ten years of interruption, the commercial route to Libya was reopened: this morning the first Ita Rome-Tripoli flight took off with Prime Minister Dbeibeh on board (who yesterday was in Rome as a guest at the conference). The other Tunisian representative, Saied, met the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale this morning.

The web that the premier is weaving is still missing a few steps. Tomorrow Meloni will also see Palazzo Chigi Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh is the fourth country for the number of illegal immigrants arriving in Italy since the beginning of 2023, at the end of 2022 it was the third), while on Wednesday it will be the turn of the president of the socialist republic of Vietnam Vo Van Thuong. All these events precipitate on the most important day – Friday. Meloni will be in the White House for a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden. All the work done in recent days will be brought to the attention of the US president, in the form of various dossiers, from African instability linked to the non-renewal of the wheat agreement to the still blocked IMF loan to Tunisia.