President Meloni’s press statement with Prime Minister Takaichi of Japan

Good morning, everyone, and thank you. Thank you for being here.

It is truly an honour and a pleasure for me to welcome the Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, my friend Sanae, to Rome. I hope I’ve managed, to the extent possible in the short amount of time we have available, to return the warm welcome my delegation and I received when we visited Tokyo in January.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to meet again, as it is clearly an opportunity to talk with a friend once again, as well as to discuss with a pragmatic, practical, and determined leader, with whom I share a particularly strong political alignment. Like me, she too is convinced that Italy and Japan are naturally strategic allies, destined to work together because they know that, together, they can help shape both the present and the future.

This alignment is not only bilateral in nature, and it is perhaps no coincidence that we are seeing each other before the start of what will be a very important G7, set to begin this evening, during which we will be discussing a great many things. This has therefore also been an opportunity to align our positions and exchange our points of view ahead of such an important summit.

Sanae and I reflected in depth on the major international crises, expressing our satisfaction regarding the announcement of a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, and reiterating the crucial importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and safeguarding freedom of navigation – an alignment also confirmed by Japan joining the joint statement issued by Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. 

We likewise discussed Russia’s unacceptable aggression against Ukraine, reiterating Italy’s and Japan’s commitment to defending international law and to a just and lasting peace. Furthermore, we cannot look the other way in the face of Russia’s latest brutal attacks against civilians. 

I believe solidarity is fundamental, especially when Russian attacks and acts of aggression go so far as to target ancient symbols of Christianity and UNESCO World Heritage sites. Our unwavering support and efforts towards peace will of course be key focus points of the G7 summit, where we will reaffirm our commitment to a revival of the negotiation process and a cessation of the conflict. 

Moving forward, we wish to continue following this path of cooperation and provide greater depth to the ties that already unite us, giving even stronger impetus to our special strategic partnership, also because we believe this is the most serious way to mark the 160th anniversary of our diplomatic relations.

Back in 1866, the world was at the dawn of a new era and, from many points of view, today’s scenario isn’t all that different if we consider the powerful transformations we are experiencing, the effects those transformations are having on our societies, and the speed with which they are happening.

I am thinking here – and we were discussing this a few moments ago – of the impact of artificial intelligence, for example, as well as the energy transition, geoeconomic fragmentation, and the instability which has now become systemic on the global stage. It is in this context that Italy and Japan have decided to cooperate even more closely, focusing above all on the areas that will define the coming decades – robotics, emerging technologies, the space economy, clean energy, mechanical engineering, life sciences, infrastructure, and defence. These are areas in which we can capitalise on the complementarity between our production systems, our strong export tradition, the quality of our industrial chains, and the intensity of our scientific and cultural exchanges. 

When Sanae and I met in Tokyo in January, we together set a number of concrete goals we wanted to reach and, as we are both women at the helm of our respective nations, we have also achieved them after just a few months.

We agreed to launch an economic security consultation mechanism to consolidate our value chains and join forces to protect strategic sectors, and we have done it. The bilateral working group on economic security met in Tokyo on 27 May and we are ready to host the next meeting here in Italy.

We also decided to initiate a dialogue on space cooperation to combine the expertise of both our space agencies and our companies. We have also done this, with the first discussion session held in May. This process will continue.

With regard to defence, which is another crucial area of our cooperation, we have continued to work side by side on a very strategic programme – the Global Combat Air Programme – together with the United Kingdom. This programme involves the development of a sixth-generation fighter jet and, on this too, we have finally entered the operational phase.

These, however, are just a few examples. Today we have decided to put other initiatives in the pipeline, undertaking to see each other again before the end of the year in the margins of the G20, where we will announce the concrete initiatives we have advanced. One concrete initiative we are working on concerns Africa. Italy and Japan share the same approach to the African continent, and it is our intention to initiate a structured bilateral dialogue in order to build synergies between our Mattei Plan and Japan’s TICAD. We also intend to develop cooperation regarding the Arctic, which is one of the strategic quadrants for both the present and the future.

We want to deepen our collaboration in priority sectors, such as artificial intelligence, as we were saying, but also biotechnologies. Natural disaster prevention is another issue on which we certainly intend to do more together, because we have many experiences in common and also share particularly important know-how on how to address seismic risks in an increasingly effective way. It is also our intention to further our cooperation on next-generation civilian nuclear power and combine Italian and Japanese engineering expertise.

In 2027, we plan to organise another meeting of the Italy-Japan Business Group, following the one held in Nagoya a few weeks ago, as well as to support mutual investments, open up our markets even more, further boost our trade, and work together on critical raw materials.

I’ll avoid listing all the things we are working on, as it really would take too long, but, as you can see, there is an extraordinary and special alignment between our two nations, between our two leaderships, and between our visions, and we intend to make the most of this.

I therefore wish to thank my friend Sanae once again. Italy and Japan are determined to build together a future of security, prosperity, and stability, because we are pragmatic people and because we want to meet the needs of our citizens and respond to what our citizens have asked of us. We will do so together. 

My sincere thanks for this visit, which is an honour for us. Over to you, Sanae.

[Courtesy translation]

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Inglese

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Meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan

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