President Meloni’s closing press point at the G7 Summit

Introduction by President Meloni

Good afternoon everyone.

The working sessions for what was a particularly important and complex G7 Summit have now come to a close. First and foremost, I think the Canadian Presidency and Prime Minister Carney should be congratulated for such well-executed leadership at what is certainly a particularly complex time. 

We have discussed many issues over the last two days, starting of course with the situation in the Middle East. As you also saw in yesterday’s G7 Leaders’ Statement on the situation in the Middle East, there is a convergence of views in the G7 and we are all committed to peace and stability in the Middle East. We are aware of the fact that the main source of instability in the region has been Iran. We all agree on the fact that Iran cannot equip itself with a nuclear weapon. Clearly, faced with what is a real threat – you have seen the IAEA’s latest reports – we agree on the fact that Israel has the right to defend itself, but the goal we are all working towards is to have negotiations that will truly prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. 

As you know, negotiations have already been attempted by the United States (as you know, Italy is well aware of this as we also hosted two rounds of those negotiations), but this willingness wasn’t shown. We will see whether the scenario will change with what is happening. 

Moving on, broadening the regional focus, I believe this is the right time to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, by pushing appropriately. I worked on this goal a lot over the last days, and I found agreement. The Leaders’ Statement refers to a ceasefire in Gaza, and I am satisfied with this result.

We discussed Ukraine; we spoke about it at dinner yesterday and we spoke about it this morning with President Zelensky, to whom I conveyed the Italian people’s solidarity following the brutal attacks we saw again last night. I would like to reflect with you about the fact that, every time there is an attempt to make some progress, Russia provokes with attacks like this, with attacks against the civilian population. Also on this, there is a convergence of views: we all agree on supporting the efforts by the United States, by the President of the United States, towards a just and lasting peace. We also know that, regarding the process required to achieve a ceasefire, to initiate serious negotiations in Ukraine, so far we have seen extensive readiness from Ukraine, and none from Russia. It is therefore clear that discussions are mainly focused on what steps can be taken to seriously bring Russia to a negotiating table. There are clearly two things to be done: on the one hand, continuing support for Ukraine, which was part of our discussion, and, on the other, putting pressure on Russia, especially with sanctions.

Moving on, aside of course from these two central issues, the G7 Summit was also convened, as you know, to discuss many other matters that are important to us: we spoke about global trade and supply chains, for example. Also in this regard, and I don’t want to bore you, but it is obvious that what we have experienced in recent years, when global crises came along, in terms of the price you pay when you don’t control your supply chains, when you are too dependent and when you don’t have strategic autonomy, has taught us something, and so we must rethink our supply chains. We need solid and controllable supply chains. We need friend-shoring, we need near-shoring.

We also spoke about critical raw materials, which is another major issue regarding which our nations are overly exposed. I wish to thank the Canadian Prime Minister for proposing a G7 alliance on this, on the very subject of critical raw materials and the production of critical raw materials. I believe this is an excellent result of this G7 Summit.

We discussed global trade and the too many imbalances that continue to exist as well as the need to also start a debate on reforming the organisations linked to international trade.

We spoke about migration, which is obviously a source of particular satisfaction for me. As you know, it was Italy that brought the issue of migration to the G7 for the first time. We were asked to lead the G7 session, showing that we made the right choice last year, a choice the other leaders want to follow up on. This also shows that everyone recognises Italy’s leadership, which is also thanks to the results it has achieved in countering illegal immigration. Today, Italy’s approach is also being taken as a paradigm by other major nations, with whom we are engaging.

I would also like to say that I am pleased that the other leaders showed such interest in the performance Italy is recording, when we talked about economic matters.

As you know, in the margins of this summit, I had the opportunity to speak with practically all the leaders present, on various occasions, and so we were also able to develop many other topics with the various leaders over the last two days, including bilateral topics. 

I shall stop here, and am ready to take any questions you may have.