What Meloni is looking for in Athens

Greek-Italian relations should enter a new trajectory after the working lunch of Kyriakos Mitsotakis with his Italian counterpart.

The good connections between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Georgia Meloni are known to those who follow their movements at the European level. The semantics also confirm this: at council meetings, they always sit side by side, and Meloni is said to always pick up the phone to talk to the Greek prime minister in order to coordinate the movements of the countries of the South before making important decisions.

This good friendship, based on realism, on the common problems of Greece and Italy, and on the path towards cooperation of the European South, opened by Mario Draghi, can be confirmed on Greek soil on Thursday, when Meloni arrives in Athens for a working lunch with Mitsotakis. While nothing has been “fixed” yet, it appears to be an informal meeting that has been in preparation for a long time, as Meloni’s arrival is already expected ahead of the double election contest.

Mitsotakis and Meloni are expected to dine either alone or in the company of several partners, but the menu is more or less defined and includes issues of the regional and European agenda, as well as issues related to the bilateral relations of the two countries. Energy is important to Athens as it wants to increase exports to Italy, in particular by speeding up the laying of the (already under construction) electrical interconnection cable. With regard to the issue of immigration, which continues to worry both sides as host countries, it should be recalled that in July last year, at the Rome Conference on Development and Migration, Athens responded to the invitation, the competent Minister Dimitris Kayrides was present.

Corvettes

The working lunch of the two leaders helps to strengthen the already good relations between the two countries, which have long been discussing the issue of strengthening defense cooperation. It is worth noting that Greece’s decision on the three plus one corvette construction program has not yet been made – there are two proposals on the table that were received by the end of 2022 from the Italian company Fincantieri and the French Naval.

Before the elections, the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense linked the issue of corvettes not only with the participation of Greek shipyards in their construction, but also with a potential defense agreement that could arise with Italy.

In any case, given that both ships meet the conditions imposed by the Navy, the French proposal was associated with the Scaramanga shipyards, and the Italian one with the Elefsina shipyards. While there is no certainty that this issue will be discussed by Mitsotakis and Meloni (the Greek side does not rule out the Italian side raising the issue), the competent minister Nikos Dendias recently told the NEA newspaper that proposals for a corvette shipbuilding program are in the process of being evaluated.

Libya
At the regional level, Rome’s relationship with Tripoli is also important to Athens, especially after Greece’s decision to send an ambassador to Libya and try to open doors for dialogue with the government. Recall that Italy plays a leading role in the events in Libya, since in early 2023, in the presence of Meloni, in Tripoli, the Italian and Libyan oil companies signed an agreement for the supply of natural gas in the amount of $ 8 billion.

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