The GCC Summit is the Gulf’s equivalent of a European Council: an annual gathering where Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain set collective priorities.
Why it matters: External leaders are rarely invited. In recent years, only Xi Jinping, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Theresa May have been given access.
- “Italy’s presence therefore takes on an exceptional character,” Italian officials note.
The big picture: A positioning built over three years. Meloni has invested heavily in Italy’s role in the wider Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula. Her travel agenda underscores the shift:
- Qatar: September 2023
- United Arab Emirates: March 2023, December 2023, January 2025
- Saudi Arabia: January 2025
- Bahrain: January 2025 (first visit by an Italian prime minister)
- Kuwait: meeting with the crown prince at UNGA, September 2024
- Oman: two phone calls with the sultan in 2025
Meanwhile, Italy hosted key Gulf leaders, including the UAE president (who visited three times in two years), Qatar’s emir (in October 2024), Bahrain’s king (in October 2023 and July 2025), and Bahrain’s crown prince and prime minister (in September 2025).
The result: strategic partnerships with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, new investment agreements with Qatar and Bahrain, and a forthcoming Italy–GCC cooperation agreement to be signed in Rome.
What’s at stake: Mediterranean, Africa, and security. The deepening of Italy–Gulf ties sits against a backdrop of:
- Regional crises (Middle East, Sudan, Libya, Yemen)
- Maritime instability
- Renewed geopolitical competition in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean
- Gulf states see Italy as a reliable partner, including on Africa:
- The Mattei Plan has aligned closely with Gulf development funds and investment strategies.
- The UAE contributes to the multi-donor fund at the African Development Bank and co-finances joint initiatives on energy, agriculture, infrastructure and training.
What Meloni will say: In Manama, the prime minister is expected to focus on:
- Italy–Gulf economic cooperation
- The link between the Enlarged Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula
- Regional stability and the future of the Middle East
A closing official lunch will provide further informal opportunities for exchanges with Gulf leaders.
From bilateral actor to regional player. Cinzia Bianco, senior fellow at ECFR, calls the invitation a “highly strategic and decidedly uncommon” political signal.
- “Before Meloni, the last European leader invited was Theresa May in 2016 — this tells us how rarely the GCC opens its doors to external figures.”
- She notes that in the UK’s case, the context was Brexit: “There was a political window of opportunity to bring London closer to the GCC, so the choice had an exact logic.”
- According to Bianco, the analogy with Italy is clear: the GCC’s move signals an intent to engage Italy “not just with individual states, but with the Gulf as a region.”
- Bianco argues that:
- Italy’s bilateral relations in the Gulf are good but fragmented
- A coherent regional strategy has so far been lacking
- The invitation aims to “upgrade Italy’s role,” shifting it from a niche, sectoral partner to a potential regional interlocutor
- She stresses that allowing Meloni to observe the GCC’s internal deliberations exposes Italy to the region’s collective dynamics — a vantage point fundamentally different from bilateral diplomacy.
- The implicit goal, she suggests, is to test whether Italy can assume a structural role in the regional system.
Bottom line: The invitation is not ceremonial. It is a message from the Gulf: Italy is being considered — and tested — as a regional player, not merely a bilateral partner.
