Italian prime minister arrives in Doha: Giorgia Meloni is visiting three gulf states

Well, Iti's Prime Minister is in the Qatari capital, Doha, as part of a trip to three Gulf countries. She's the first EU and NATO leader to visit the region since the start of the Iran war. Italy is Europe's most gas-dependent economy, where electricity prices have soared across the country. And Qatar has been one of Italy's major suppliers of gas, accounting for 33% of Italy's LNG imports. Giorgia Maloney began her trip in Saudi Arabia and will also make a stop at the UAE. Let's go to Axel Zamovich, who joins us live from the Qatari capital, Doha. Axel, why this visit now? And what repercussions has the sort of near closure of the whole ministry had on Italy so far? Well, you mentioned already, Sara, the Prime Minister is here as a part of a Gulf tour, and it's really majorly focused on energy and security. But let me just touch on security for a bit, because Qatar and Italy, they have a very strong defence relationship. Just remember, three years ago, there was a joint military exercise between Qatar and Italy. And that joint military exercise was built on very strong defence deals. In 2017, Qatar signed a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase Italian naval vessels. Just a year later, in 2018, Qatar also purchased, in another multi-billion dollar deal, Italian military helicopters. So that's part of Qatar's attempt to modernize its armed forces, but also to strengthen ties with its European partners. But the major aspect that comes here is energy supplies. Well, if we look at the relationship between the two countries, Italy is heavily dependent on liquefied natural gas. Most of that was coming from Russia, but since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, everything has changed. So now that gas is coming mostly from Qatar and the United States, but also a significant amount coming from Algeria because of the infrastructure of pipelines that directly dispatch that gas to Italy. What's really important in the relationship with Qatar, in 2023, Qatar Energy signed a year-long deal with an Italian energy company to supplies that liquefied natural gas. And that supply is supposed to kick off in 2026. But given the circumstances right now, it's really casting a shadow of what's going to happen with that deal. We still are not aware if this contract is going to be affected by it, but what we know so far that visit comes at a very crucial time and that really explains why the Italian prime minister visits Qatar at this very critical moment for Italy. All right. Thanks very much for the update. That's Axel Zamovich there, live for us here in the Qatari capital.