“We must act in the face of crises” –

It is an invitation to “act” that launched by Giorgia Meloni in her speech at the Summit of the Future, within the framework of the works of the 79th UN General Assembly, the first official appointment of the Prime Minister in New York. “The challenges that History has placed before us are multifaceted”, she said citing the various global crises, not least the “unacceptable Russian war of aggression” against Ukraine. “We have no other choice than to act in the face of such a complex scenario”, continued Meloni, underlining that “crises always hide opportunities” and “force us to question ourselves, to take sides, they do not allow us to hesitate”.

Italy is a “strong supporter of multilateralism” and the United Nations, Meloni stressed, also touching on the issue of reforming the governance of the UN, starting with the Security Council. “Every organization is effective if it has fair and shared rules” and for Italy the reform of the Security Council “cannot ignore the principles of equality, democracy and representativeness”. Italy, Meloni said, “is not interested in creating new hierarchies”, with a division between “Series A and Series B nations”. In this regard, Meloni cited in her speech the Mattei Plan for Africa, “based on respect and the right for everyone to compete on equal terms”. It is the Italian “recipe” for “promoting the development of the continent”, she recalled. The Prime Minister also touched on the issue of new technologies, such as generative AI, about which, in her opinion, “there is not enough awareness”. For Meloni, “politics must ensure that Artificial Intelligence is governed by humans and keeps humans at the center”, avoiding the risks of “potentially catastrophic” scenarios.

At the end of the day, Meloni took part in the Atlantic Council’s ‘Global Citizen Award’ ceremony. Also awarded with her were the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the Vice President of the South Korean holding company CJ Group, Miky Lee. The Prime Minister was Tesla, X and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, whose political and entrepreneurial positions have recently been at the center of several controversies, not only in the United States. Before the event, Italian sources had reported that the “award recipients” had been identified months ago. The sources said that Meloni and Musk have a relationship of personal knowledge, collaboration and mutual respect. As for the possibility that Musk, with his Starlink, could invest in Italy, the sources explained that it is a hypothesis, but that at the moment there are no concrete projects.