Giorgia Meloni

Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister since October 2022, became the first leader of any European Union, NATO or G20 member state to visit the Gulf since the Iran war began on 28 February 2026. She travelled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on 3 to 4 April, unannounced before departure, on what her office framed as energy diplomacy. The visit exposed the scale of Italy's supply exposure: an unnamed Gulf LNG supplier has notified Rome that 10 Liquefied Natural Gas cargoes scheduled between April and mid-June will not be delivered, the first publicly disclosed physical supply cut to a European buyer. Italian airports had already started rationing jet fuel on 7 April.

Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy party, which holds the most seats in the ruling centre-right Coalition. She is Italy's first female prime minister. Domestically, her government cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by 25 cents per litre for 20 days. Alongside Germany, Spain, Portugal and Austria, Italy has jointly proposed an EU-level windfall tax on energy companies as European fiscal responses diverge sharply from one another.

The Gulf trip's wider significance is that it fractured the implicit EU consensus that economic engagement with Gulf suppliers should await a collective decision. The United Kingdom had positioned its 40-nation reopening Coalition as the primary European diplomatic track; Meloni's unilateral visit opened a competing bilateral channel. Follow-up visits to Azerbaijan are reported to be in preparation, signalling Italy is securing supply independently rather than waiting for Brussels.