Africa, migrants and artificial intelligence. The three major themes brought by Giorgia Meloni to the attention of the world’s leaders find ample space in the G7 conclusions. The dossiers have been on the government table since the Prime Minister took office at Palazzo Chigi, and are now expressly mentioned among the 11 points present in the preamble of the 36-page final document on which the Sherpas of the various delegations worked right up to the last minute. Borgo Egnazia. “We are engaging with African countries in a spirit of fair and strategic partnership” are the words inserted in the part concerning Africa, with an addition in which the leaders state that they “welcome the Mattei Plan launched by Italy” . Regarding the topic of migratory flows, the G7 affirms “our collective commitment and strengthened cooperation to address migration. We will focus on the root causes of irregular migration, efforts to improve border management and curb transnational organized crime and on safe and regular routes for migration”. The leaders also announce that they have “launched the G7 Coalition to prevent and combat migrant smuggling”. Finally, in reference to AI, the commitment is to cooperate “to exploit the benefits and manage the risks”, with “an action plan on the use of AI in the world of work” on the horizon.
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Two of the three dossiers – migrants and AI – were at the center of the work sessions that characterized the final day of the summit (the focus of the third was the Indo-Pacific and relations with China). During the first meeting, Italian sources explain, the leaders expressed “unanimous appreciation” for the choice of the Italian presidency to introduce, for the first time, the governance of migratory flows in the work of the Group of Seven. “For Italy – add the same sources – it is necessary for the G7 to act as spokesperson at an international level for a new strategy that develops along various lines, starting from the fight against human traffickers who fuel the flows of illegal immigration and represents a new form of slavery. Another direction touches on the causes of migration. Finally, the last direction of the Italian approach concerns the commitment to restore legality in the governance of migratory flows, also by continuing to seek other solutions, such as this one. contained in the Italy-Albania Protocol”. The great theme of generative artificial intelligence was instead at the center of the outreach session in which Pope Francis also took part. An absolute novelty highlighted by Meloni in thanking the ‘keynote speaker’ who arrived by helicopter from Rome: “It is the first time that a Pontiff participates in a meeting of the Group of Seven, and this inevitably makes today’s appointment historic. So I don’t I will never be grateful enough for being here, Your Holiness.”
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What partially ‘stained’ the summit was instead the back-and-forth between Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron on the topic of abortion (the term, present in the final declaration of the Japanese G7 last year, is not included in the presidency document in which, however, “the commitments” expressed in the Hiroshima communiqué are reiterated “for universal access to adequate services and accessible and quality health services for women, including complete sexual and reproductive health and rights for all”) and the question of the rights of LGBT people, with the Italian presidency forced to “categorically” deny the news on the lack of references to the topic in the final document. “We express our strong concern about the reduction of the rights of women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people around the world” the passage ultimately agreed by the Sherpas in the chapter ‘Gender Equality’.
Meloni will hold a final press conference tomorrow afternoon in Borgo Egnazia after some bilateral meetings which will be added to those held today with American President Joe Biden and the Prime Ministers of India and Japan, Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida. In the more than half-hour face-to-face with Biden, according to the White House, Meloni was praised for her “firm support for Ukraine”, including “the important security assistance from Italy”.
