President Meloni’s press statement with Prime Minister Montenegro of Portugal

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here.

I am very pleased to have welcomed Luís Montenegro, the Prime Minister of Portugal, to Rome today. I am very pleased to have had the chance for an in-depth discussion with him on the opportunities we have to strengthen the friendship and cooperation between our two nations, which is already very strong, but we always start from the premise that we can do more and better. It had been more than ten years since a Portuguese Prime Minister paid an official visit to Italy and I see this occasion as being an important sign of our shared will to revitalise the relationship between our nations. 

We can do a lot together, especially if we bear in mind the many things that Italy and Portugal have in common, first and foremost, of course, our geographic location: we are maritime nations that have always extended their economic, cultural, commercial and strategic reach beyond their borders, also and above all thanks to the privileged position we enjoy with respect to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. In my view, which is also a view shared by the Prime Minister, this is an extraordinary strength, especially if we think about the main challenges of our time: security, energy, economic interconnections, competitiveness, strategic autonomy.

I therefore consider this to be a particularly significant visit. 

Prime Minister Montenegro and I have decided to relaunch our bilateral cooperation and to do so across the board, starting with a document signed today by our Foreign Ministers – Minister Tajani and Minister Rangel – which will enable us to make the political dialogue between our Governments even more stable and even more structured. 

We are of course not beginning from scratch, but rather from a solid basis. Take our trade relations, for example, which in 2025 recorded their highest value of the last few years, reaching almost EUR 10 billion. This result reflects the dynamism of our economies as well as the growth potential that exists between our economies.

One of the sectors in which we can certainly achieve a qualitative leap is the defence industry. I am very happy that the Portuguese authorities have decided to purchase three FREMM EVO frigates built by Fincantieri. This is recognition of Italy’s industrial excellence as well as proof that Europe can bolster its autonomy by investing in the industrial and technological capabilities of its companies. I also believe this is an opportunity to work more and more on the cooperation between our maritime supply chains, expanding to civil shipbuilding and several sectors linked to the blue economy, as well as the overarching matter of the sea and the strategic supply chains linked to this domain of geopolitics, both now and in the future.

We intend to follow the same approach for other strategic sectors, such as energy, infrastructure, port logistics and transport. Portugal is making decisive investments in these areas and Italy, as always, can provide its exceptional know-how.

We obviously discussed the possibility of launching close cooperation in Africa. As we highlighted during our meeting, Italy and Portugal are perhaps the two European nations with the most similar approach to the African continent. I believe there is scope to increasingly pool our nations’ expertise, relationships and instruments. Over the last years, as you know, Italy has worked to greatly expand the Mattei Plan for Africa and, today, this strategy involves 18 African nations and is recognised as an international initiative. Among these are two key nations that have very deep ties with Portugal – Angola and Mozambique. In this regard, there is certainly huge potential for cooperation, and not just bilateral cooperation but cooperation at the multilateral level – let’s say, European cooperation too.

We obviously also dedicated part of our meeting to our collaboration on issues on the EU agenda, focusing in particular on the negotiations regarding the next multiannual budget. Italy and Portugal share the firm belief that the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) must be up to the new challenges Europe is called upon to tackle, but without calling into question policies that have always been at the heart of the European project. I am obviously referring to the CAP and Cohesion Policy. In our view, these policies are not relics of the past but are rather preconditions for growth, competitiveness and strategic autonomy. 

I very much appreciated Prime Minister Montenegro’s participation in the ‘Friends of Cohesion Policy’ leaders’ meeting which, as you know, Italy hosted together with Romania. I think we’ll very often find ourselves standing side by side when it comes to the debate on the MFF.

We also discussed migration management and we are convinced of the need to continue strengthening the external dimension, working to get to the root causes of migration. I believe there is significant scope for cooperation on this too.

Ahead of the planned discussions at October’s European Council meeting, we also addressed the issue of enlargement and the gradual, credible path we must follow together with our partners that are candidates to enter the EU, to ensure this investment turns into a success for everyone.

The Prime Minister and I also focused on the main international issues, reiterating our support for Ukraine and our commitment to work together with our European and Atlantic partners for a just and lasting peace. 

With regard to Iran, we clearly agreed on the need to make every effort towards a de-escalation and shared our concern over what we are seeing in the region as well as our commitment, of course, to freedom of navigation in particular, which is absolutely crucial for two nations like ours.

In short, there are many things on which we share the same point of view and on which we can work even better together.

So, my sincere thanks to Prime Minister Montenegro for this visit, which I would like to see as the beginning of a new chapter in our already very solid and very fruitful cooperation.

Thank you. Over to you.

[Courtesy translation]

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Inglese

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Meeting with the Prime Minister of Portugal

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