At a Rome bilateral summit, the United Arab Emirates announced that it plans to invest 40 billion dollars in Italy. The two countries did not give a timeframe.

Since taking office as Italian Prime Minister in 2022 Giorgia Mello has sought to strengthen ties with Gulf nations, ignoring the concerns raised by political rivals over human rights.

Italy under her leadership lifted the arms embargoes imposed on the UAE and Saudi Arabia by previous governments because of the war in Yemen.

Meloni received Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahya, President of the UAE, on Monday during his state visit to Rome. The pair also pledged to continue working towards a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.

In a joint press release, the two governments announced that the UAE had committed to investing $40 billion across Italy's key sectors as part of the partnership. The statement also announced "more than forty new agreements".

Major Italian companies were involved in the deals, including energy group Eni and telecom operator Telecom Italia. Also, Leonardo, a shipbuilder, and Fincantieri, a maker of arms, are all part of this deal.

Eni announced that it has signed an agreement with UAE-based companies MGX G42 and G42 for the development of data centres in Italy powered by natural gas power stations using carbon capture technology.

Eni has also signed an agreement with Masdar, a UAE-based renewable energy company and Taqa Transmission. This gives it the "preferred buyer" status for renewable energy produced by Albania as part of a Italo-UAE/Albanian agreement announced in January.

Intesa SanPaolo (Italy's No.1 Bank) signed a memorandum with Masdar, the UAE energy group, to discuss M&A in international renewable markets. Leonardo also announced a deal with UAE-based EDGE Group, following a previous collaboration agreement.

Meloni said at the Italy-United Arab Emirates Business Forum held in Rome that "it is a historical day, another landmark in our relationship."

She added, "We chose to focus our partnership on strategic axes such as artificial intelligence (AI), data centres, research in space, renewable energy, and rare earths."

The joint statement emphasized enhanced military and safety cooperation through "joint manufacturing, technology transfer and the development defense manufacturing facilities."

The report also referred to the need for a closer collaboration with global partners, such as the United States, on the issue of ransomware and joint cybersecurity exercises.

Meloni announced a strategic partnership strengthened with Saudi Arabia last month. The agreement was accompanied by a series of business deals valued at around $10 billion. (Editing by Gavin Jones & Christina Fincher).

(source: Reuters)