Signed in Perth by SACE president Guglielmo Picchi and Western Australia’s Agent General Rebecca Tomkinson, the declaration commits both sides to a “stable dialogue” aimed at opening new investment and business opportunities between Italian and Australian companies.
Decoding the news: Gianclaudio Torlizzi, adviser to Italy’s defence minister and a member of Picchi’s delegation, told Decode39 Western Australia laid out its leadership across the critical-minerals chain — from exploration and extraction through to processing — while SACE stressed its interest in backing “diversified and sustainable” supply sources for Italian investment in clean energy, advanced manufacturing and strategic industry.
Why it matters: The declaration sketches out several priority areas, according to Torlizzi:
- Building resilient supply chains linking Western Australia and Italy;
- Sharing information on projects and investment opportunities;
- Promoting joint initiatives for companies, institutions and market operators.
- Both sides also flagged the need to knit together governments, financial institutions and industry to drive innovation, skills and growth in critical-minerals and energy-transition technologies.
The bigger picture: The pact slots into a widening Rome-Canberra partnership on critical minerals and the energy transition. Only weeks earlier, Italian ambassador Nicola Lener and Australian minister Madeleine King held a bilateral meeting on the same theme, while two-way trade topped 900 million Australian dollars in the last financial year.
- Western Australia — rich in critical minerals and battery materials — is positioning itself as a dependable supplier as governments scramble to loosen dominant players’ grip on the inputs of the green transition.
What it signals: For Rome, the agreement is another move to de-risk access to the raw materials underpinning Europe’s industrial and clean-energy shift. WA mining minister Daniel Pastorelli cast the state as a “reliable” investment destination capable of building “secure and resilient” supply chains, and pointed to closer work with Italy to unlock opportunities in critical minerals and batteries.
The message from both capitals is unmistakable: securing the building blocks of the energy transition has become a strategic priority — and one increasingly pursued through partnerships that reach across hemispheres.
