Draghi travels to Libya to strengthen relations with rebuilding Dbeiba government
Following the approval by the House of Representatives of the new Government of National Unity, many countries have decided to move and show their support for the Executive that has the responsibility of stabilising the country. The latest to do so has been Italy. The Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, travelled to Libya on Tuesday to support the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeiba, with whom he met as soon as he landed in Tripoli.
Italy's intentions are very clear. They want to reach out to a country that is in the midst of a reconstruction process and whose fundamental objective is to regularise the situation in its territory with a view to the elections that will take place at the end of this year. At the same time, Rome aims to improve relations between the two countries with a view to the near future. They have even put the first concrete proposals on the table. The prime minister has expressed his intention to expand the work of the embassy in the Libyan capital, as well as to reopen flights between the two countries: "We hope to reopen airspace between Libya and Italy, activate the customs agreement and address all outstanding issues regarding Libyan investments in Italy.
He did not want to leave aside one of the most controversial issues regarding the Italian and Libyan borders. The fight against illegal immigration was another of the issues to which Prime Minister Draghi referred and which he hopes both countries will help each other to combat, since, he says, "security is an essential requirement for future cooperation". Something that Dbeiba also wanted to emphasise: "We suffer from a common challenge, which is illegal immigration, which is a European, Libyan and international problem". It is worth remembering that the Central Mediterranean Route, from the coasts of Tunisia and Libya to the coasts of Malta and Italy, is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, and has one of the highest mortality rates in this type of migration.
Mario Draghi was keen to express his concern about maintaining the ceasefire as agreed. However, he said that security could not be guaranteed until the thousands of mercenaries from countries such as Turkey and Russia left the country. Precisely in relation to the security aspect, the first contacts have already been made in this area to carry out a collaboration plan between Italy and Libya for the construction - and also reconstruction, with which they have enough work to do - of "civil infrastructures, energy and health", which will help the Libyan state to overcome so many years of fighting.
The most controversial meeting was the one between Abdul Hamid Dbeiba and his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. One of the tasks marked in red on the agenda of both leaders was the creation of a joint commission that could shed some light and provide a solution as soon as possible to the dispute between the two countries over the distribution of territorial waters and the delimitation of maritime borders. According to the Libyan prime minister, "we are ready to form joint committees with Greece to discuss maritime borders," he said during a press statement in which no questions were allowed.
On the other hand, there are still some tensions between the two countries. Among other things, the fact that Greece expelled the leader of Libya's Presidential Council, Mohamad al-Menfi, from the Libyan embassy in Athens does not seem to have been quickly forgotten in Tripoli. However, the first step towards reuniting Greeks and Libyans will be the reopening of the Greek embassy on Libyan soil. However, the most important thing will be the support that Athens assures the Libyans that it will provide to help them rebuild their country: "Greece will support Libya to achieve stability and to hold legislative elections without interference". The Libyan population is excited about the elections, which will be held on 24 December 2021.