Meloni to Bahrain for Gulf countries summit. A look at exports and India
The Italian premier is the only one invited, in recent years it had only happened to Erdogan and Xi. The hope of opening new outlets for Italian products and the relaunch of the Imec corridor
Key points
Giorgia Meloni will land in the next few hours in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, where tomorrow she will take part in the 46th summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the organisation that since 1981 has brought together, in addition to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. The list of foreign leaders invited so far has been very select. In 2007 it was the turn of Iran's Mahmud Ahmadinejad. In 2015, the first European was French President Francoise Hollande. The following year it was British Prime Minister Theresa May's turn. In 2022 it was the turn of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the following year of Turkish President Erdogan.
Strategic Gulf Overlook
The Italian Prime Minister's presence is an unprecedented opportunity 'sewn' into three years of patiently weaving diplomatic relations and increasing demand for Made in Italy products in the Gulf area. Super yachts, fashion, agri-food, mechanics, furniture, infrastructure, renewable energy: between tariffs and world trade routes that are being redefined, for Italy, the outlook on those markets is more than strategic.
Looking at India and Imec
Closer relations with emirs and sheikhs also serve to shore up the new Cotton Road towards India and the Indo-Pacific. From Manama Meloni will in fact relaunch Italy's participation in Imec, the freight corridor that will connect India to the Mediterranean via the Arab countries and that aims to strengthen the connections between Asia and Europe, with the ports of Trieste and the Adriatic that could aspire to the role of hub. The Gulf Cooperation Council also has consultation forums, at leader level, that meet with the USA (the last one last May in Riyadh with Donald Trump) and with the European Union (as happened in October 2024 in Brussels, also attended by Meloni).
New encounters with the king and the crown prince
Meloni will meet the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for the third time and is also expected to see the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the kingdom, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, whom she received in September at Palazzo Chigi. Strengthening cooperation, especially in defence and energy security, and launching the Strategic Investments and Collaboration Partnership with investments of over one billion.
The ties with Saudi Arabia
In Manama, the Prime Minister could also meet with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, just a few days after the conclusion of the Business Forum, which was attended by 500 Italian companies in Riyadh, and while negotiations by the sovereign wealth fund Pif to invest in Leonardo's aerostructures division are at an advanced stage, as anticipated by Bloomberg. The government had already signed agreements worth USD 10 billion with Arabia in January.
