PRESIDENT MELONI’S INTRODUCTION

Good afternoon everyone,
we’ll try to give an overview of our participation in the United Nations General Assembly so far. As you have seen, many things have happened over these last three days.

We began with a series of meetings with a number of leading representatives from the world of business and innovation. As you saw, we met with the CEOs of Motorola, Google and OpenAI, and of course also with Elon Musk, to discuss and continue the work we are doing particularly on the governance of artificial intelligence, but also to look into opportunities for greater investment in our nation.

Then there is the whole part regarding the United Nations which began yesterday with the address on the Pact for the Future, in relation to which Italy, as always, has outlined its priorities: from supporting Ukraine through to the work we are doing to try and reach a de-escalation in the Middle East, the reform of the UN Security Council, the governance of artificial intelligence and the work Italy is doing in Africa, also as inspiration for a new model of cooperation, as well as the issue of the fight against human traffickers. All these issues will obviously come up again in my speech to the General Assembly later today, which will of course go into more detail, and we will also be covering the matter of Latin America. In short, the major issues Italy is raising are the ones you’ve already heard about.

This is also an opportunity to meet with many other leaders, and we have indeed met with many. We have had a series of bilateral meetings, with the Crown Prince of Kuwait, the Prime Minister of Iraq, President Erdoğan of Türkiye, this morning with President Zelensky of Ukraine and just now with President Milei of Argentina, plus many ‘pull-asides’ to use the technical term, so very quick meetings, also held in the margins of each other. We have of course focused a lot on the matter of the Middle East, and we are very concerned about the situation in Lebanon at the moment, but with all these nations we have also discussed our bilateral relations.

In the margins of all this work, you have also seen other initiatives, one of which being with President Biden, whom I thank. We took part in the initiative of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, in relation to which Italy, as you know, was one of the first European nations to take action, and it is no coincidence that we were among this initiative’s attendees.

Yesterday, as you saw, there was the Atlantic Council award, so now we just have the speech to the General Assembly and the address at tomorrow’s initiative organised with the nations that have signed security agreements with Ukraine. I will also be participating, albeit remotely as it was moved in the last few days. Overall, I would therefore say that the last few days have been positive, with a very busy schedule. I hope I haven’t forgotten any of the things we’ve done, but if I have I am here to answer your questions.

[Courtesy translation]