Bilateral relations, including in the energy and investment sector, management of migratory flows, negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. These are the main dossiers that the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, will discuss again during her official visit to Tunis. The issues, already discussed last Friday in the telephone call between the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic of Tunisia, Kais Saied, will be discussed in more detail during the conversation between the two that will take place before lunch at the Presidential Palace in Cartago.
As LaPresse reports, the Italian government is following the situation in the North African country with particular attention, so much so that Meloni also raised the case on the occasion of the G7 meeting in Hiroshima after meeting in person with the director general of the O IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. For the official, Tunisia “is a nation that is currently in difficulties because technically it runs the risk of a financial default and it is clear that if the Tunisian government falls we could live an absolutely worrying scenario”, she admitted during the interview given to “Quarta Repubblica” on Rete4 on the eve of the mission. The reference is obviously to the “migration issue”, at a time when, recalled Meloni, Italy already has to deal with “a situation that objectively is the worst that has ever occurred, due to the situation that Africa is experiencing as a whole but also due to everything that is happening in Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, food crisis, Libya and Tunisia, which is in a very delicate situation”. And that, if it got worse, it would cause a lot of problems for Italy. On the other hand, as the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, recently recalled, “Since the beginning of the year, Tunisia has detained at least 20,000 people with targeted control activities on the coast and on the mainland. It is a country that is playing an important role in cracking down on drug traffickers and limiting outflows.” That’s why Meloni at the Japanese G7 returned to negotiations between the IMF and Tunisia that were effectively blocked.
“There is a certain rigidity on the part of the IMF in view of the fact that President Saied has not obtained all the guarantees that would be necessary – explained the prime minister – It is understandable on the one hand, on the other hand we are sure that this rigidity is the way to improve? If this government goes home, do we know what the alternatives may be? I believe that the approach must be pragmatic, because otherwise we run the risk of aggravating already compromised situations”. issue of migrants by proposing the holding of a high-level conference between all the countries concerned, namely the countries of North Africa, Sahel and Sahara and the countries of the north of the Mediterranean, “to face the causes of irregular migration and put an end to these inhumane conditions”.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
