During a press briefing following her official visit to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni provided a "quick overview" of the trip, emphasizing first and foremost that "there is a focus of the Italian government that has been going on for over two years regularly focused on the enlarged Mediterranean" in the context of which, added the Prime Minister, "obviously the Gulf nations assume a strategic centrality, and Saudi Arabia is a leading player". "But these aren't just courtesy visits", Meloni explained. "These are opportunities for us to work towards actual results. Specifically, here in Saudi Arabia, the choice was to enhance the level of our collaboration to strategic partnership", which "means a council that meets on a regular basis" and "takes stock of the progress of the common work on the specified priority topics. We have clearly recognized cooperation in energy, defense, the impetus to reciprocal investments, and archeology challenges. The value of the agreements, both governmental and private, marks the beginning of a new phase of strategic cooperation with this important player in the Gulf and the enlarged Mediterranean, as well as common work that we can do, for example, in the field of energy in Africa".