Future of Italy, Europe Depends on Secure and Prosperous Africa: PM Giorgia Meloni

ADDIS ABABA, February 14, 2026 (ENA) — Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy and Europe’s future is inseparable from Africa’s stability and prosperity, stressing that the continent is central to the evolving global order.

Addressing the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa today, she stated that Italy will continue to do its part as the future of Italy and Europe depends on a secure, prosperous, and peaceful Africa.

“We will continue to do our part, because we are aware that the future of Italy and Europe also depends on a secure, prosperous, and peaceful Africa.”

According to her, history has started running again. And it is running here in Africa. "Africa is not a marginal chapter in this story, far from it.”

She further noted that those who do not understand this scenario are being left behind. But those who understand this scenario see the reality.

Meloni, who is in Addis Ababa to participate in the 2nd Italy–Africa Summit held in Addis Ababa, expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to address African leaders.

“The invitation to participate in the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, the forum in which this organization discusses its fundamental political choices and determines the strategic direction of the continent, is a recognition that can only make Italy proud and that will Italy accept with respect and a sense of responsibility. It is a demonstration of trust that we will not disappoint.”

Highlighting Italy’s diplomatic philosophy, the Prime Minister underscored the concept of cooperation. “The word cooperation comes from the Latin co-operare, to work with. True cooperation never sees an active and a passive subject, but exists only in a relation between equals, a relation in which the specificities of each one are indispensable for achieving a common goal.”

If you look down on someone, you cannot co-operate with them. If you want to plunder their resources, you are not co-operating with them. Even if you just want to give charity, you cannot call it co-operation, for co-operation is another thing. And what Italy wants to do is to co-operate, she elaborated.

Referring to the Italy–Africa partnership and the Mattei Plan, the PM said it is a strategy built together. “This is a strategy that we have built together, because we do not conceive of the Mattei plan as an Italian plan for Africa but as Italy's contribution to your agenda, with a particular focus this year on water-related projects.”

According to her, the Plan is an open platform for putting know-how, technologies, and investments at the service of the objectives that the African Union has set out in Agenda 2063.

On debt relief and financial cooperation, she said “Italy has decided to launch a vast program to convert the debt of African nations, which includes, among its main points, the complete transformation of the debt of the most fragile and vulnerable countries into investments, and the strengthening of the contribution to the World Bank's AIDA funds.”

On migration, she stressed the importance of creating opportunities within Africa. “We want to do this to achieve another goal that we all consider momentous, to guarantee the men and women of this continent a freedom that has often been denied them. The freedom to choose to remain in their country, to contribute to its growth without being forced to leave it, often paying unscrupulous traffickers to risk their lives in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean.”

Meloni concluded that Italy and Europe cannot think about the future without taking Africa into proper consideration; “because our future also depends on yours.”