Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni was
greeted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi and United
Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday as she
arrived at the Sharm el-Sheikh Convention Center for the opening
ceremony of the COP27 UN Climate Conference.
It is the first visit to Egypt by an Italian premier since the
brutal murder there of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni in 2016
- a homicide that Italian prosecutors suspect was committed by
members of Egypt's security forces.
On Monday Meloni had bilateral talks with British Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Ethiopian Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Meloni is expected to reiterate that Italy will do its bit to
help achieve the EU's greenhouse-gas-reduction goals in her
address to the conference.
Last week Meloni announced that her government would expand
concessions to drill for gas in the Adriatic as part of Italy's
efforts to replace Russian energy supplies following the
invasion of Ukraine.
Climate groups have been calling on the government to ramp up
investment in renewables rather than seeking new fossil-fuel
energy supplies.
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