Meloni guarantees the gas supply for Italy in Algeria

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In the third visit by an Italian head of government in recent months, the right-wing leader signs five economic agreements in the North African country

Three visits to Algiers by a head of government from Rome since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began eleven months ago. Italy has clearly shown the importance it attaches to relations with Algeria, which has already become its main gas supplier, overcoming its former dependence on Russian methane. Following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Mario Draghi, who traveled to the North African country twice in the less than 20 months she was in power, Giorgia Meloni arrived in Algiers on Sunday, where she will spend two days further strengthening ties. especially in the energy and commercial fields. This Monday, he met with the President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was in Rome last May, after meeting and dining last night with the Prime Minister, Aimen Benabderrahmane.

Meloni is accompanied during her stay in Algeria, her first bilateral meeting outside the European Union, by Carlo Bonomi, leader of Confindustria, the powerful employers’ organisation, and by Claudio Descalzi, ‘number one’ of Eni, the Italian state oil company, which has strong interests on Algerian territory. With this visit of its Prime Minister, Italy is consolidating itself as Algeria’s great partner in the European Union, taking the space that Spain had before, in March last year the government of Pedro Sánchez took over the Moroccan positions on Western Sahara and thus provoked the anger of Algiers, historic support for the Saharawi independence movement.

During this visit, five energy, trade, industrial and even space agreements were signed by the leaders of both countries, with which Meloni aims to guarantee that the North African country will increase its gas shipments to Italy in the coming years, as negotiated Draghi last year. Tebboune has pledged to go from the current 25,000 million cubic meters to 35,000 million cubic meters in the coming years, which would enable Rome to meet its target of stopping Russian methane imports from 2024. Rome also wants to become a central hub of the European distribution of this hydrocarbon from North Africa, taking advantage of the two gas pipelines connecting its territory to Algeria.

“The vast majority of our national interests travel in the Mediterranean,” Meloni noted from Algiers, where he began his visit aboard the Italian naval vessel “Carabiniere,” which participates in immigration control work in the Mare Nostrum and for the protection of Italian infrastructures. in the area.

The Prime Minister also took advantage of her stay in the capital of the North African country to see with her own eyes the “Enrico Mattei” Gardens, named in honor of the founder of the Eni oil company, a great promoter of relations between the two countries. , and which were inaugurated in 2021 by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Trade relations between Italy and Algeria amounted to 7,330 million euros in 2021, of which 5,570 correspond to purchases by Italians from Algerians, mainly in hydrocarbons.

Source: La Verdad

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