INTRODUCTION BY PRESIDENT MELONI

Good afternoon everyone.
It was right to hold this press conference on the G20, on this two-day event.

First of all, I want to offer Prime Minister Modi my congratulations, Italy’s congratulations, once again for the success of this not-so-easy edition of the G20. Italy has offered the Indian Presidency its cooperation right from the beginning, not only because of our excellent relations with India but above all because we continue to be absolutely convinced that the G20 is a strategic multilateral forum, as it allows for effective dialogue with the large emerging nations, with countries in the Global South. We have to remember that the G20 nations represent a total of two thirds of the global population, 75% of trade and 80% of the world’s gross domestic product.

The success of the Indian Presidency of this edition of the forum was strategic, also with respect to the international context we are facing, particularly with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, to not aid that self-interested narrative that would like to see the West divided from the rest of the world. We have shown that we are attentive to the needs of Global South countries, that we do not want clashes between countries in the north and those in the south.

In this regard, I consider it to be particularly important – and I want to take this opportunity to thank the Italian Sherpas who participated in the negotiations – that we managed to find consensus among leaders on the final declaration. Lastly, I believe that the success of this G20 is also very important for Italy, especially as Italy will be hosting the G7 next year, as you know. Of course, what happens in the G20 forum inevitably tends to also have repercussions on what happens in the G7, but also bearing in mind that the next two G20 sessions will be led by two BRICS countries, i.e., Brazil and South Africa.

We worked together with the Indian Presidency to have a declaration that, in particular, made a precise, specific reference to Ukraine. This was clearly the most complex result and it was not a given, especially if you take into consideration the fact that the ministerial meetings in preparation for the G20 all ended without a final declaration. The declaration is clearly a compromise, but I nevertheless consider it to be very important in the current context. Those who have followed the negotiations know that the work was difficult and took a long time, but in the end it was possible to put together this final declaration, going from country to country. I really consider this to be a very important element.

In addition to the issue of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, of course, there are many issues in the final declaration that Italy considers a priority and in relation to which Italy has played an important role. I am thinking of the fact that we have obtained concrete references to migration issues, for example, in line with the Rome Process – our Conference on Development and Migration – and therefore references to the need to fight illegal immigration and human traffickers and to instead support legal migration paths, to foster cooperation on this issue among countries of origin, of transit and of arrival, and the commitment to address this matter also in future editions of the G20.

Then there are the issues of climate neutrality, the issue of multilateral development banks that need to be closer to low-income countries, in particular in Africa. Thanks also to Italy’s role, thanks also to Italy’s attention, Africa was central at this Summit, with the African Union joining the G20 as a permanent member, an option that Italy was among the very first nations to firmly support. We clearly consider this to be a success of ours too: it was no coincidence that Africa was also the focus of my address during yesterday’s plenary session and, in the margins of the plenary session, we also attended a meeting between the European Union and African Union leaders present.

I also think that this is a very important element, as it shows growing attention from the European Union towards the African continent: this was not the case in the past, and I believe this is another element that is being taken into consideration also thanks to the role that Italy has played, especially in the last year. During what was a very fruitful meeting yesterday, we of course discussed growing instability, especially in the Sahel, we discussed migration, we discussed investments, we discussed the food crisis, and there is a willingness from the European Union to cooperate more closely with African countries. For me, this is particularly important because, as I have already announced and shall say again, Africa will be one of the key issues we will be bringing to the G7 Presidency next year.

Then there is the matter of artificial intelligence which was instead the focus of our address during today’s plenary session, as I had already talked about during the G7 in Hiroshima and at the European Council. I believe world leaders must focus more on the issue of artificial intelligence. I said it frankly today: technology is developing very fast, and I do not always get the impression that our ability to govern processes is developing at the same rate.
However, whereas on the one hand we clearly have to optimise the added value that new technologies can bring, on the other we cannot fail to adequately consider the impact those new technologies can have on our societies, especially when we talk about artificial intelligence. We were used to progress that was necessary to optimise human skills, but today we risk facing progress that replaces human skills. Yes, this has also happened in the past, but in the past physical jobs were replaced, with people then focusing more on theory-based and organisational work; today, intellect itself risks being replaced, which would have a huge impact also on high-level professions. This is a consideration that is worth focusing and speeding up on.

We have announced that this will be another issue at the centre of our G7 Presidency and that we plan to involve players from both the public and the private sector on this; however, above all, we want to call for the development of generative artificial intelligence to be based on ethical principles that can form the basis of a global regulatory framework. Individual nation states clearly cannot make a difference regarding such issues alone unless there is global regulation. In line with what has already been done, also by Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2020 with the ‘Rome Call for AI Ethics’ – we want to pick up that work and bring it to the attention of the G7 leaders, hoping to then extend it – we are certainly contributing to the important work being done by the European Union, the European Commission. I also spoke about this with Prime Minister Sunak, who will be hosting a ‘Safety Summit’ at the start of November on the subject of artificial intelligence. We are ready to cooperate with everyone, but this really is an issue we risk being too late on and, this time, being late could have dehumanising and highly critical impacts for our societies.

Of course, in addition to the declaration and the plenary session work, you will have seen that there was a series of initiatives in the margins of the summit which I also consider to be very important: yesterday’s launch of the Global Biofuels Alliance together with the United States, India, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Bangladesh. As you know, this is a battle we are also conducting within the European Union; it is one of those challenges that tend to bring together the green transition, of course, on the one hand, and our national interests on the other. As you know, with regard to biofuels, Italy, particularly with ENI, is at the absolute cutting edge and so, for us, it is very important that we can today count on large nations that share this challenge with us.

Yesterday, together with India, the United States, the European Union, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, we launched a major economic corridor project between the European Union, the Middle East and India: a network of sea and rail connections that, in my view, will allow us to unleash huge potential for trade and business. This is another project that is part of Italy’s significant leading role in the network of physical and digital energy connections being worked on: I would like to refer to and recall Elmed, the power line connecting Italy and Tunisia, but also Blue Raman, for example, connecting Italy and India with fibre optics.

Italy is very focused on the issue of infrastructure, particularly sustainable infrastructure in developing countries, and this is also part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, the G7 initiative for infrastructure in low-income countries, in which Italy certainly plays a leading role.

You have seen that there has also been a series of bilateral meetings. To be honest, at events such of these, between the official initiatives and albeit few occasions that remain between one and the other, it is of course possible to speak a little bit with everyone. So, there have been very many discussions and a number of more structured bilateral meetings.

With Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with whom there is always a very broad convergence of views, we talked about artificial intelligence, as I said, we talked about immigration, we talked about Ukraine.

With Prime Minister Modi we took stock of the work that has been done with the G20 and discussed the upcoming Italian Presidency of the G7 as well as our excellent bilateral relations. When we came here to India in March, we launched a strategic partnership, and today that strategic partnership is giving us great satisfaction; we hope that our relations can improve even more.

We had a bilateral meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang; a cordial meeting that was constructive regarding how we can deepen our bilateral partnership.

We also had bilateral meetings with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, both nations where, from our point of view, there is a lot of unexpressed potential, that Italian companies are looking at today with great interest and with whom we want to strengthen our cooperation.

In closing (I’ve gone fast because we don’t have very much time), this evening, before returning to Italy, we’ll be in Doha, in Qatar, for a bilateral meeting with Sheikh Al Thani. As you know, Italy pays a lot of attention to the region of the Gulf, the Persian Gulf, as we also demonstrated with the Rome Process, with the International Conference on Development and Migration that we invited many of these nations to.
Our bilateral meeting will clearly focus on the sectors where we believe we can intensify our cooperation: security and defence; investments.

If you agree, I shall stop here so we can have a bit of time for some questions.

[Courtesy translation]