Intervento di Giorgia Meloni a X° edizione della Conferenza MED. Dialoghi Mediterranei. Collegatevi.

I would like to thank the ministers, the authorities and many international guests who have accepted the invitation of the Farnesina, the invitation of the ISPI and who have taken part in the work of this 10th edition of the Roma Dialogues. I would like to thank Minister Tajani, President Bruni for the hospitality, for the organization, for the determination with which we continue to organize this event which has returned this year to take place after the pause of last year and which in time has become a fundamental forum of reference for the confrontation on the challenges that revolve around the Mediterranean. And it is, as the minister said, a confrontation that Italy considers absolutely priority, strategic, primarily because the Mediterranean is our home. In the most noble acceptance that we can give to the word home, taking care of the Mediterranean for us means valuing the natural geopolitical, geo-strategic, geo-economic projection of Italy. It is something that does not simply arise from a political input, from an occasional choice that this or that government can make. It is something much more. It is something that originates from our own geographical position and that geographical position has clearly contributed in time to define our culture, the development of our civilization, our projection towards the outside. And, as I have mentioned many times, Italy is a very particular nation. It is a continental and maritime nation at the same time. It has its head, which is a piece of Middle Europe, and it has its feet immersed in the Mediterranean. And this naturally makes us a bridge between the North and the South of Europe, between continental Europe and Mediterranean Europe, between Europe as a whole and the Mediterranean, Africa and the Middle East. But not only that. For millennia, the Mediterranean has been the heart of political, cultural and commercial exchanges in the world. Then, for centuries, it has become a sort of blind spot, as if it were an extreme appendage of the Atlantic Ocean. Then again, progress and human ingenuity, as often happens, have made the impossible possible, that is, a change in geography with the opening of the Suez Canal. Thus, the Mediterranean has gradually regained its centrality, markedly as a middle sea that connects the two great maritime spaces of the globe, which are the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Indo-Pacific on the other, through the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. It is a centrality that, over time, has led to the creation of this definition of an enlarged Mediterranean, a concept that, as many here know, was born in the 1980s, which has gradually entered our language, which identifies a geographical space enclosed between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Aden, including the Middle East and Central Africa. Over the years, a lot has been done to give political depth to this notion. However, I want to say this morning that I have personally matured the conviction that perimetering the Mediterranean with fixed borders is, in the end, a kind of diminution and that today it is much more adherent to the reality of things, the teaching that a great historian, Ferdinand Brodel, had already expressed at the end of the 1940s, when he said that the Mediterranean is what men do. I have made this long premise to explain that, I believe that in this tenth anniversary of the Rome Dialogues, we can try to take a great opportunity, which is not only to deepen together some of the priority challenges of this particularly complex historical time that we are facing, but it is also, perhaps even earlier, to take an important step forward in geopolitical and geostrategic reflection on the role of the Mediterranean and to try to give body and substance together to a new and, if we want, much more ambitious definition, which is no longer that of an enlarged Mediterranean, but that of a global Mediterranean. It means to think of the Mediterranean not as a circumscribed context defined by physical limits, defined by political limits, and not even as a regional sea at the end of the great challenges. But it means to think of the Mediterranean as a space that wants to expand to the world and become the protagonist of the main global interconnections, because it is within reach of our challenge. We must not forget that the Mediterranean is the shortest way of communication between the West and the East, and it is no coincidence that, despite occupying only 1% of the waters of the globe, it is crossed by about 20% of the world's maritime traffic. Before the Houthis began their attacks against the merchant ships in the Red Sea, the Suez Canal had surpassed every traffic record, surpassing the 26,000 ships transited in 2023. Because, obviously, it is the link between the Mediterranean and another fundamental maritime space of the international economic scenario, increasingly important, which is the Indo-Pacific. Just think of the fact that 40% of the foreign trade of the European Union passes through the South China Sea and much more transits through the Indian Ocean. These are all elements that clearly offer Italy an extraordinary advantage, because if it is true that the Mediterranean has returned to the center of the world and if it is true that we are at the center of the Mediterranean, the conclusion is obvious to everyone. And, clearly, our nation understands well the responsibility and the role that this plays, it understands well how much it has the opportunity to be central in global dynamics today and, particularly with this government, I believe that we have shown it, it intends to do its part to the end from this point of view. I am referring in particular to the enormous opportunities that come from the development of economic interconnections, which are increasingly decisive in a globalized economic context and with a high level of innovation. I am thinking, for example, of the development of IMEC, the Infrastructure and Economic Corridor Project, which aims to connect Europe, the Middle East and India, an initiative on which Italy has played a fundamental role for the launch in the G20 area and in which Italy intends to play a leading role. Because, clearly, connecting the port cities of India, the Middle East and Europe, inserting Italy among the key nodes of this map, at least with Trieste, the northernmost port of the Mediterranean, historical maritime entrance to Central and Eastern Europe, would clearly allow us to release a huge potential for our economy, for our trade, for our businesses, as well as the strategic digital connection, in a time in which data will increasingly be the engine of our societies. And here I would like to remind you of Blu-Rama, the fiber-optic communication system that will connect India to European economies, once again passing through the Mediterranean. To conceive the Mediterranean as a global space becomes an extraordinary opportunity for everyone, also from an energy point of view, where, clearly, we have already nominated our nation to become the main node for the energy flows between the Mediterranean, Africa and Europe. It is an ambition to which the government is giving voice, as we know, also through the Piano Mattei for Africa, which among its pillars has energy, in particular energy connections. Here it is worth remembering two fundamental strategic projects, namely the Elmed electric interconnection between Italy and Tunisia, therefore between Africa and Europe, and the South Edge to Corridor for the transport of hydrogen from North Africa to Europe, that is, two infrastructures that will make Italy the European gateway for gas and Mediterranean hydrogen. After that, speaking of the Mediterranean as a global space also means working to build a geopolitical space that must be more and more secure and stable, in the light of a non-predatory, non-charitable, non-paritary cooperation. This is the message that our government wanted to convey, particularly in the relationship with African nations, where our challenge is above all to allow African nations to best use the numerous resources they have, to live off what they have, with stable governments, with prosperous societies, and to guarantee, as Minister Tajani always said, a right that has not been guaranteed so far, which is the right not to have to emigrate, to be able to find in their own community, in their own home, without receiving their own ties, the possibility of a better future, made of dignity, made of growth, made of work, made of opportunity. Because this is true solidarity and true respect, and this is what the Italian government has been working on since its founding. This is, as I said, the underlying philosophy of the Mattei Plan for Africa, a plan shared with the countries in which it operates, a concrete plan that has already started in nine African countries. Obviously, our goal is to involve many more. It is a strategic plan of national interest, it is not just a strategic plan of national interest. What we are trying to do is to Europeanize it, to internationalize it more and more, and therefore to create more and more synergies between different tools that operate with the same goal. The Mattei Plan for Italy, the Global Gateway of the European Union, the infrastructural project of the G7, the famous PGII. That is, we are also trying to accompany many others in understanding the attention to this approach and to a continent that will become more and more strategic for the future at the international level. I believe that it is also due to our fundamental impulse the appreciable decision of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to introduce in the new Commission a portfolio dedicated to the Mediterranean, to work on the writing of a plan for the Mediterranean, Italy looks at this initiative with great attention and is obviously ready to provide all the necessary collaboration. But this choice shows a change of attitude, a change, if we want, of attention towards the southern flank that Europe has taken in recent years, and I believe, above all, thanks to the Italian impulse. That change of attitude is particularly visible and also in the government of the migratory flows, which I mentioned, the support of Europe in the memorandum with Tunisia, the support of Europe in the memorandum with Egypt, the increasingly marked commitment on the one hand to create development in African countries and on the other to fight the networks of human trafficking, with an approach that is objectively very different from what we have seen in the past. It is good for us to hope for the future. Clearly, it is a path that must now be consolidated to counter with ever greater incisiveness the illegal mass migration, to make parallel more and more effective the channels of legal migration. It is a work that we have carried out, as Italy, not only at the European level, we have done it at the Mediterranean level. I remember the process in Rome, that is, the initiative, which, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we organized last year, putting together the main Mediterranean countries to work together on the issue of migration, how to counter the causes, how to manage them effectively, how to fight the networks of traffickers. We did it here in Rome, giving life to this initiative, which is not by chance called the Rome Process. Now we are working on the second edition that should take place in Tunisia in 2025. After that, looking at the Mediterranean means also making the role of Europe feel the weight in the war against chaos, which is at risk of spreading with the multiplication of inactive crises. We all know the dramatic situation that Sudan is experiencing. A country torn apart by a devastating civil war with a humanitarian situation that is in collapse, catastrophic. About 25 million people malnourished, 8 million internally displaced, more than 2.5 million people fled to the borders of South Sudan, Chad and Egypt. The very serious violations of human rights, violence on an ethnic level, complicate a picture that is already extremely precarious and can have consequences not only in the region. I say this to remind myself and to remind each of us of a crisis that perhaps is not being talked about enough. Because it means being aware of the role that it is always possible to play in the global context. And I will not forget, of course, I will not forget the main crisis that today is the Mediterranean, that is the conflict in the Middle East, the dramatic situation in the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon. I do not remember all the work done by the Italian government. It did it very effectively in a few minutes. Minister Tajani I say effectively in a few minutes because it was a huge job for me, for which I obviously thank not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but the entire Italian system, because these things succeed effectively especially when there is a line of people who understand how fundamental these dynamics are overall for our system. The announcement last night of a ceasefire in Lebanon is a very important and very positive development. Obviously we must consider it a starting point and not a point of arrival. It is necessary to take this opportunity, to work now with conviction to a long-term stabilization of the Lebanese-Israeli border that will allow all settlers, both Israelis and Lebanese, to return to their homes safely. To do this, as the ceasefire agreement also provides, it is essential to finally apply the United Nations Resolution 1701 to strengthen the capabilities of UNIFIL and, above all, to strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces. I am proud of the fact that Italy, under the command of the Military Technical Committee for Lebanon, has a central role, especially in this challenge. To work together with G7 partners, together with Gulf partners, together with European partners, to strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces so that they can assume the responsibilities provided by the UN mandate is an essential condition to achieve the objectives provided by the agreement on the ceasefire and by the UN Resolutions. I would also like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in recent days has been engaged with its G7 counterparts, which has reiterated once again the Italian commitment to reach a de-escalation, to lay the foundations for a long-term political solution to the entire Middle East crisis, clearly based on the prospects of the two states, in which Israel and Palestine can finally coexist side by side in peace and security. The increase in tensions and military escalation have also aggravated the refugee crisis in the entire region, particularly in Syria and Jordan, and clearly in Lebanon, because it is another area on which Italy has spent a lot of money in recent months. It is essential to face this emergency because it is a crisis that is getting worse and worse. Personally, and with the entire government, we are committed to bringing this issue to the attention of the European Council. I am convinced that Europe must work to build the necessary conditions so that refugees can return to their homeland, a return that must be voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable. It is what the refugees want and ask for, and it is a goal that cannot be sent back to a distant future. This is another of the large-scale commitments on which Italy is working in recent months. And so I conclude. This concludes the 10th edition of the Roma Dialogues. It is an opportunity to make a balance of what we have done so far, but above all, it is an opportunity to ask ourselves what is still to be done. While we are concluding an edition of the Met Dialogues, we are starting to organize the next one and we are questioning ourselves about the challenges of next year, because we know that there are still many, many pages to be added to the millennial history of the Mediterranean, which is a much wider history, of its geographical borders, as it is much wider, of its geographical borders are its opportunities, of the rest, as someone wrote, and in particular what the master of Albert Camus wrote, the Mediterranean is a short space that suggests infinity. Thank you.