Italy's Meloni bags UAE investment pledge worth $40 billion

By Giuseppe Fonte and Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates plans to invest $40 billion in Italy, the two countries said at a bilateral summit in Rome, without providing any time frame.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pursued stronger ties with Gulf countries since taking office in 2022, ignoring concerns over human rights issues raised by political opponents.

Under her watch, Italy lifted arms sales embargoes for the UAE and Saudi Arabia imposed by previous governments, linked to the war in Yemen.

On Monday, Meloni welcomed UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahya on a state visit to Rome, and the pair pledged to work towards a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership."

"In this context, the UAE has announced a commitment of $40 billion to invest in Italy across key sectors," the two governments said in a joint statement.

It added that "more than 40 new agreements were signed in total", on areas including economic cooperation and investment defence, nuclear, space and cultural heritage affairs.

No details about companies involved were given.

Italian energy major Eni said separately it had signed a letter of intent with UAE companies MGX and G42 to develop data centres in Italy, powered by natural gas power plants that use carbon capture technology.

Eni also signed a deal with UAE state-controlled renewable energy firm Masdar and Taqa Transmission giving it the status of "preferred off-taker" of the renewable energy produced in Albania under an Italo-UAE-Albanian deal announced in January.

In addition, Eni signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ to cooperate on the critical minerals supply chain.

"It is a historic day, another milestone in our relationship," Meloni told the Italy-United Arab Emirates Business Forum in Rome.

"The choice we made was to focus this partnership on strategic axes, such as artificial intelligence, data centres, space research, renewable energy and rare earths," she added.

The joint statement pointed to enhanced military and security cooperation through "joint production, technology transfer, and the development of defense manufacturing facilities."

It also mentioned joint cybersecurity exercises and the need for closer cooperation on ransomware threats, including with global partners such as the United States.

Last month, Meloni signed a strengthened strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia that was accompanied by business deals worth around $10 billion.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones and Christina Fincher)