Italy, Saudi Arabia share a vision based on dialogue, accountability

We are living in a time when we can no longer read the relationships between states through a partial lens or past schemes. Security, economic growth, technological innovation, energy transition, and cultural exchange are the dimensions of a single system. The relationship between Italy and Saudi Arabia takes place within this integrated perspective: a mature dialogue, based on reciprocal accountability and projected toward a common vision of stability and growth.
For Italy, the Kingdom is an important interlocutor in the connection area linking Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In an international scenario marked by tensions, competition between powers and new hybrid threats, the dialogue between responsible nations is a collective security factor. It is not just a question of bilateral cooperation, but a contribution to regional stability, protection of energy supply and trade routes, maritime security, and the fight against terrorism and transnational criminal networks.
Within this context, cooperation between Italy and Saudi Arabia assumes also a broader political meaning, fostering the conditions for peace and stability in the Middle East.
Supporting de-escalation and dialogue pathways is essential in regions currently characterized by deep fragility such as Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria, as well as to guarantee the success of US-Iran negotiations. The latter is a crucial step to prevent further regional escalations. In this perspective, dialogue between responsible partners contributes to create opportunities for diplomacy and the conditions necessary for stability.
Cooperation in the defense sector fits this framework. For Italy, the staple of defense is a fundamental principle: Security is a global public asset.
Strengthening our prevention, protection, and crisis response capabilities means reducing instability, disincentivizing conflicts, and protecting civilians, infrastructures, and trade. Saudi Arabia and Italy are aware that modern, trained armed forces, equipped with advanced technology are not instruments for confrontation, but for deterrence and stability.
Within this framework, cooperation between the defense industries of our two countries is an asset of strategic and industrial value. Italy boasts a highly specialized industrial system, in which technological excellence joins manufacturing quality and the capacity for integration between major industrial groups and the supply chains of small and medium enterprises. Our relationship with the Saudi industrial sector is not exclusively a commercial one, but a genuine pathway to partnership including transfer of know-how, training, joint technological development, and creating shared value. This is how lasting relations are established, based on trust and common objectives.
 

We must keep an open channel for discussion and be true to our vision.

Guido Crosetto

Defense, however, is not an isolated sector. Technologies developed for military use — from space to cybersecurity, from autonomous systems to advanced materials — result in significant returns for the civilian sector. Technological cooperation between Italy and Saudi Arabia can become a multiplier for innovation in key sectors such as artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure protection, data management, energy, and environmental security.

Investing together in R&D will prepare our economies to tackle future challenges. The Kingdom today is one of the most dynamic, transformative global markets. Major modernization programs and economic diversification are opening significant opportunities for the Italian economic system: infrastructures, design, engineering, agro-industry, aerospace, and green technologies. Italian companies are appreciated for the quality of their products as well as their offer of integrated, sustainable solutions, and their high creativity content.
In this regard, the economic dimension of our bilateral relationship is an integral part of our strategic partnership.
Energy cooperation is a further pillar: In the current phase of global transition, the security of supplies, development of renewable sources and access to strategic and critical raw materials must move forward together. Italy and Saudi Arabia can collaborate both to guarantee traditional market stability and speed up innovation on hydrogen, CO2 capture technologies, energy efficiency, smart networks, and critical mineral supply chains, in which Saudi Arabia is increasingly investing while promoting international initiatives and forums. We can turn energy and resources from vulnerability factors into a terrain for cooperation and reciprocal trust.
The role of tourism and cultural exchanges goes beyond the economic sector. Knowing each other means reducing distance, overcoming stereotypes, and building bridges between civil societies. Italy, with its historical, artistic, and environmental heritage, and Saudi Arabia, with its incredible cultural wealth and the enhancement of new hubs for tourism, can develop bidirectional flows involving collaboration and exchange at academic and research center level. Our new generations are our actual long-term strategic investment.
A key word is fundamental to our relationship: accountability.
Accountability means working in full transparency, complying with international law, focusing on regional stability and the impact on our peoples. It means understanding that technological and economic power must always proceed shoulder to shoulder with a wise political vision. Italy and Saudi Arabia, regardless of their different history and systems, today share the will to play a constructive role in a complex global scenario.
Finally, vision is what turns cooperation into a shared project. It is not about managing what already exists, but of imagining the future together: safer, more sustainable cities, resilient infrastructures, diversified economies, societies open to innovation. Along this track, constant discussion between institutions, industries, and the scientific community is the main tool.
Italy and Saudi Arabia are proving that it is possible to build a relationship which joins security and development, industry and culture, national interests, and international accountability. We must continue on this path to tackle a more uncertain world: keep an open channel for discussion, and be true to our vision.

• Guido Crosetto is Defense Minister of Italy. X: @GuidoCrosetto