Rome (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates (Water) plan to invest $ 40 billion (38.26 billion euros) in Italy, the two countries said on Monday at a bilateral summit in Rome, without providing any details on the calendar.

The president of the Italian council, Giorgia Meloni, welcomed the President of the Water, Mohammed Ben Zayed Al Nahyane, on an official visit to Rome, the two leaders who were committed to working in favor of a “global strategic partnership”.

“In this context, the United Arab Emirates announced that they are committed to investing $ 40 billion in Italy in key sectors,” said a joint statement.

“More than 40 new agreements have been signed in total”, in fields such as economic cooperation and investments, defense, nuclear, space and cultural heritage, according to the press release.

No details on the companies affected by this investment has been given.

Since his arrival at the presidency of the Council in 2022, Giorgia Meloni has sought to strengthen the bonds of his country with the Gulf countries, ignoring concerns in matters of human rights raised by the Italian opposition.

Under his direction, Rome has raised embargoes on sales of arms and Saudi Arabia imposed by previous governments, due to the war in Yemen.

The ENI energy group has announced in a separate declaration that it has signed a letter of intent with MGX and G42 emiratic companies to develop data centers in Italy, powered by natural gas electric power plants that use carbon capture technology.

Eni also signed an agreement with the Emirati Masdar State company, specializing in renewable energies, and TAQA Transmission, giving it privileged access to renewable energy produced in Albania, within the framework of an Italo-Emirati agreement -Albanais announced in January.

In addition, Eni has signed a memorandum of understanding with the ADQ sovereign fund of Abu Dhabi in order to set up cooperation around the essential ores supply chain.

“It’s a historic day, a new step in our relationship,” said Giorgia Meloni at the Italie-Eau business forum held in Rome.

“The choice we made was to focus this partnership on strategic axes, such as artificial intelligence, data centers, space research, renewable energies and rare earths,” she added.

The joint declaration highlights the strengthening of military and security cooperation by “joint production, technology transfer and the development of defense equipment manufacturing facilities”.

It also mentions joint cybersecurity exercises and the need for closer cooperation on threats linked to extortion software (“ransomware”), including with global partners such as the United States.

Last month, Giorgia Meloni signed a reinforced strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia, which was accompanied by commercial transactions worth around $ 10 billion.

(Giuseppe Fonte and Alvise Armellini, Mara Vîlcu, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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