Meloni highlights strategic energy deal with Albania and UAE at Abu Dhabi Summit

An effective and sustainable transition to renewable sources of energy needs to be carried out with adequate infrastructures and interconnection is the key to a new diplomacy aimed at boosting opportunities of cooperation, Premier Giorgia Meloni said, addressing the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week summit.

"If we want to enact a concrete and sustainable energy transition, we must ensure that it is carried out with adequate infrastructures.

"I am sure that developing interconnections can be the key to a new energy diplomacy to multiply opportunities of cooperation amongst us, generating benefits shared by all.

"With this approach, Italy wants to become a strategic hub for energy flows between Europe and Italy", said the premier.

Meloni said she was proud of a deal with Albania and the United Arab Emirates for the production and transportation of renewable energy from Albania to Italy.

"I am personally proud of this initiative, which tangibly shows how new forms of cooperation can also be built between partners who can appear distant, at least geographically", noted Meloni, speaking about the deal between Italy, Albania and the UAE, signed by Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed and Albanian Premier Edi Rama, for the production of green energy in Albania and its transportation to Italy.

Meloni called the deal an "ambitious project between the Adriatic's two coasts", a "new energy interconnection to produce green energy in Albania and export part of it to Italy, thanks to a subsea cable in the Adriatic - a project that involves our three governments, as well as our private sectors and our network operators".

And Rama also spoke about the creation of the infrastructure for the production and transport of renewable energy from Albania to Italy on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week summit.

"The infrastructure is worth around one billion euros and it will be operational in three years at the most", explained Rama, addressing Italian reporters at the summit.