(Adnkronos) – Premier Giorgia Meloni and her Albanian counterpart Edi Rama were set to sign a an economic cooperation accord in Rome on Thursday during the first inter-government summit between Italy and Romania.
Besides the economic cooperation agreement, the two countries were due to ink 15 other accords in areas ranging from defence, security and migration to energy, infrastructure, the environment, health, innovation and training.
Meloni and Rama were snapped embracing each other warmly and shaking hands at the start of the summit taking place at the 17th-century Villa Doria Pamphili on Rome’s Janiculum hill.
The summit is being held two years after Meloni and Rama signed a contested agreement to build two centres in Albania to process male migrants rescued by Italian vessels in international waters.
Following legal challenges and a European Court of Justice ruling in August, the two processing centres in Albania are currently being used solely to deport migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected.
