On 13 October 2023, the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, went to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, to meet the President of the Republic, Denis Sassou N’Guesso, a former Marxist-Leninist dictator and then “democratically” elected head of an authoritarian regime converted to kleptomaniac petro-mining liberalism.
In what Meloni called «A long conversation, which undoubtedly testifies to the long-standing friendship between our two nations, and also shows the interest in talking with a person of such great experience. We talked about our bilateral relations, our cooperation and the international scenario; it was undoubtedly one of the most interesting meetings I have had in the last year of government». Meloni and the eternal strongman of the Republic of Congo therefore also certainly spoke about the war in Ukraine and Russia’s military-economic infiltration in Africa. and Meloni, also in light of her increasingly weakened Mattei Plan, underlined that «As regards cooperation between Italy and Congo, our collaboration is clearly very strong. Italy is Congo’s second European trading partner and Italian companies have a structured and long-standing presence in Congo. The President of the Republic and I agree on what true cooperation between two nations is: cooperation has nothing to do with a paternalistic approach and nothing to do with a predatory approach that we have sometimes seen disguised as cooperation.
I believe that the cooperation model that Italy is trying to transmit and develop is exactly the type of cooperation we have done with Congo: Italian companies have invested here, naturally thinking about the question of the work they have to carry out, but also focusing on growth of the territory in which they operate”.
And, just to make the “new model” clear, our Prime Minister recalled that «We recently concluded commercial agreements with Eni to import liquefied natural gas next winter, but it is only a matter of exporting to Italy the excess gas that the local population does not need (sic!). The primary objective is therefore to guarantee growth to the populations in which we invest, because Africa is a rich continent that needs support to extract and enhance the many resources it has at its disposal.”
After recalling a couple of Eni’s “humanitarian” initiatives as examples, Meloni made things very clear: “Energy is a key element of this cooperation, which today unites two interests: the needs of Europe, which is struggling with energy resources, and the possibility for Africa to produce those energy resources. It is no longer a question of cooperation on a transitory basis; it is a question of creating lasting and mutually beneficial links between our destinies. In addition to our bilateral work, it is clear that this cooperation also concerns the major crises we are facing. We spoke with the President of the Republic about the environment and the President told us about the upcoming “Summit of the three basins of biodiversity, ecosystems and tropical forests”, which will be held in Brazzaville at the end of this month. I assured him that this initiative, which I consider very intelligent, will be attended by high-level representatives of the Italian government.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face, and it must be addressed seriously: not with an ideological approach but rather with the seriousness of defending the environment with people inside, thus ensuring social and economic sustainability together with environmental sustainability. It is no coincidence that Italy has chosen to allocate 70% of its Climate Fund, worth about 3 billion euros, to the African continent, and that it has decided to link this investment to what we call “Mattei Plan for Africa” (Enrico Mattei was the founder of Eni), which describes the type of cooperation that Congo has so well demonstrated in its relations with Italy and that we would like to expand as much as possible».
But Sassou N’Guesso cashed in and then did the opposite of what Meloni asked him to do, both in international politics and for the exploitation of mineral resources. In fact, on 27 June the president of the Republic of Congo was in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin with the explicit objective of «Reaching a new level in relations with Russia. We have come to explore opportunities to take our relationship to the next level and lay the foundation 60 years into the future for our cooperation in the years to come.”
And, just to make it clear which side he is on in the international dispute, the Congolese president also said in an interview with RIA Novosti of wanting to start «Negotiations with the Russian side in the fields of defense, economy and other areas of cooperation. Congo is discussing with Russia the involvement of Russian companies in the extraction of iron, potassium, phosphates, copper, zinc, gold and diamonds. There are many opportunities in Congo. We have significant reserves of minerals, such as iron, potassium, phosphates, copper, zinc. There are also reserves of gold, perhaps diamonds. Here, we believe that Russian partners will be able to find their place. The Republic of Congo is interested in the production of fertilizers: the country has reserves of phosphates and potassium and, with the participation of Russian partners, the country could produce full-fledged fertilizers.”
Putin knows this and, receiving the dictator of Congo in the Kremlin, he stressed that “Relations between Russia and Congo are developing positively, also thanks to the President of the Republic Denis Sassou N’Guesso. You have done a lot to ensure that they developed so positively.” Then he awarded the Order of Honor of the Russian Federation to Sassou N’Guesso “For his great contribution to the development and strengthening of relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Congo.”
More than in Congo, the Mattei Plan could run aground on the banks of the Moskva.
