The prime minister’s mission to Asia is underway, with high-level meetings scheduled with the leaders of Oman, Japan and South Korea from today until January 19. Here is the program.
Opens today with the official visit to the Sultanate of Oman on Asian tour of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In the capital Muscat, the Prime Minister will meet the Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.
First stop in Oman
At the center of the conversation between the Prime Minister and the Sultan will be the expansion of cooperation on several fronts: defense, justice, culture, education, research, sport and social policies. There will also be an in-depth analysis of the main regional dossiersstarting from the situation in the Middle East and Yemen.
While tensions in Iran will ultimately represent one of the most delicate issues on the agenda, with the ambassador of the Islamic Republic who was summoned by the Foreign Minister yesterday Antonio Tajani to ask «the Iranian authorities to ensure respect for the rights of the people, including that of expression and peaceful assembly, and the safety of those demonstrating in the streets».
We continue in Japan
Already tomorrow, Prime Minister Meloni will be traveling to Japan, where a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister is scheduled for Friday 16th. Sanae Takaichiwho like Meloni shares the distinction of being the first woman to lead the Land of the Rising Sun.
The first meeting between the two leaders took place at the G20 in Johannesburg last November, while on Friday Meloni and Takaichi will adopt a “Joint Declaration” which will elevate bilateral relations to a “Special Strategic Partnership”.
In concrete terms, commitments will be defined to accelerate the Italy-Japan Action Plan 2024-2027. The bilateral meeting will obviously also touch on the most recent hot topics: war in Ukraine, Iran, the security of the Indo-Pacific and cooperation in Africa, where Rome and Tokyo share an “inclusive” development approach with the Mattei Plan Italian and the Japanese Ticad initiative.
The partnership between Rome and Tokyo is also in the field of Defense. In fact, since 2022, Japan has become part of the Italian-British project for the development of a sixth generation military fighter, the Global Combat Air Programmea trilateral initiative involving the British BAE Systemsthe Italian Leonardo and the Japanese one Mitsubishi.
It ends in South Korea
The Italian Prime Minister’s Asian tour will end in South Korea, Italy’s third commercial partner in Asia (after China and Turkey), where on 19 January Meloni will meet the President in the capital Seoul Lee Jae-myung.
The bilateral meeting will follow the path of the previous ones and will focus on political, economic, industrial and cultural relations, as well as the situation in East Asia. As in the case of Japan, here too Meloni and Lee will sign various agreements, including: an agreement to strengthen industrial cooperation in the semiconductor sectora memorandum on the prevention and management of natural disasters and an agreement on the protection of cultural heritage.
Finally one wait Joint statement of the two leaders, aimed at consolidating bilateral cooperation, especially in the critical semiconductor sector, an area in which Seoul excels, being the third producing country after Taiwan and China.
