Africa has become the convergence point between foreign policy, economic security, and Italy’s international positioning, set against a backdrop of intensifying great-power rivalry.
The Mattei Plan as political architecture. The Mattei Plan provides the backbone, not as rhetorical window-dressing but as a political framework for concrete action across energy, industrial value chains, agriculture, infrastructure, and training.
- Rome has committed €5.5bn in financing through a mix of development credits, export guarantees, and co-investment vehicles, supporting programmes in 16 African countries.
- The objective is structural: to move beyond episodic engagement and build a projection that speaks credibly to both African partners and Western allies.
- The February 13 summit — deliberately timed to coincide with the African Union summit in the same location, and, by serendipity, on the day following the European Council — is conceived both as a stocktaking exercise and as international validation of a policy line Rome intends to sustain.
- After the Italy-Africa Summit, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will be the special guest of African Union meeting.
Security as the connecting tissue. Security provides the connective tissue between these initiatives. The United States’ decision to deploy military advisors to Nigeria followed a meeting in Rome between US Africa Command’s General Michael Langley and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
- The Rome passage underscores Italy’s emerging role as a credible political broker on African security files, capable of facilitating convergence between Washington and African capitals on issues ranging from counterterrorism to regional stabilisation.
- In a country facing persistent threats from Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province—groups that have caused over 350,000 deaths since 2009—the American decision carries significance well beyond operational deployment. It signals recognition of Italy’s convening power and its capacity to align interests across the Atlantic and the Sahel.
- Niger reinforces this picture. Following the January 15 attack by Islamic State militants on Niamey airport and on Base 101—home to Italy’s bilateral mission—Rome’s response was to maintain presence and expand it to 300 personnel.
- Italy now provides the only remaining Western military footprint in Niger after the withdrawal of US and French forces. This role directly feeds into the strategic credibility underpinning the Mattei Plan.
Critical minerals: from security to economics. This security architecture connects directly to the economic dimension, particularly critical minerals. Over the past decade, competition over supply chains has shifted from industrial to political terrain. China controls approximately 70 per cent of global cobalt refining, 60 per cent of lithium processing, and 90 per cent of rare earth processing.
- Beijing’s advantage lies not primarily in extraction but in the high-value refining and processing stages, integrated with Belt and Road infrastructure — railways in Zambia, ports in Tanzania, power grids across the Horn of Africa.
- The model has generated substantial pushback. Since 2022, at least nine African governments have restricted exports of unprocessed minerals, seeking to capture more value domestically.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo — source of 70 per cent of global cobalt — banned the export of raw copper and cobalt in 2023. Zimbabwe and Namibia followed with similar measures. The efforts remain fragile but are politically significant, signalling African determination to move beyond being a raw-material supplier.
- Italy is positioning the Mattei Plan as a response to this shifting landscape, working with allies to support African processing ambitions while securing Western access to strategic materials.
- The issue gained formal recognition at the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, attended by over 50 countries, where the United States convened allies and partners to discuss supply chain security, price stability, and industrial de-risking.
- Speaking in Washington, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani framed critical minerals explicitly within the Mattei Plan’s logic, arguing that responsible partnerships with African producers, infrastructure development, and economic cooperation are not alternatives to Western economic security but essential components of it.
- The political message: resource access, when structured through partnership rather than extraction, reinforces rather than undermines strategic autonomy.
Lobito as a paradigm. The Lobito Corridor exemplifies this integrated approach. Implemented at the June 2025 Rome summit with European, American, and African backing, the $5bn project will upgrade 1,300km of railway connecting Zambia and DRC’s copper belt to Angola’s Lobito port, creating an alternative to Chinese-controlled export routes.
- Italy has committed €320m alongside €2bn from the EU and $2bn from the US, with first cargo shipments expected in late 2026.
- The corridor is paradigmatic because it integrates the three layers of the Mattei Plan: infrastructure investment, access to critical minerals (copper, cobalt, lithium), and shared economic security architecture.
- It demonstrates how partnerships — when designed to support African value-chain ambitions—can simultaneously advance Western strategic interests and African development objectives.
Underscoring Italy’s credibility. The Lobito corridor emerged from Italian diplomatic work across three continents, securing American financial commitment, European coordination, and African governmental support.
- It represents the Mattei Plan’s internationalisation phase: Italy as convener and co-investor within broader Western and African frameworks.
- Go global: Italian officials involved in preparing the summit say the Mattei Plan is becoming increasingly internationalised.
- Its projects now involve not only the EU’s Global Gateway — the European instrument for infrastructure investment, which has committed around €1bn to the Mattei framework — and other European countries, but also partners beyond the Union, from the Gulf to Central Asia.
- According to the same sources, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also discussed the Mattei Plan with the heads of government of Japan and South Korea during her recent visits to both countries.
The strategic picture. As the February 13 summit approaches, the narrative Rome projects is one of integration. Security engagement in Niger and Nigeria creates political capital and operational presence. That presence reinforces credibility in economic negotiations around infrastructure and minerals. Infrastructure projects like Lobito, in turn, provide a concrete demonstration that the Mattei Plan delivers tangible outcomes, not just frameworks.
- This circularity is intentional. Africa, security, and geoeconomics are not separate chapters but interconnected elements of a single strategic posture.
- If sustained through credible projects and genuine integration with US and European strategies, the Mattei Plan can establish Italy as a key node in Western engagement with Africa.
- This position translates resource access, infrastructure investment, and security cooperation into durable political influence in an era of supply chain competition and great-power rivalry.
