Italy in the G20: a guide for Model G20 delegates

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If you are assigned Italy at a Model G20, you speak for a founding member of the European Union, a country that was one of the six at the 1975 Rambouillet summit that began the G7, and the host of the 2021 G20 summit in Rome. Italy holds one of the G20's 19 country seats, alongside the European Union and the African Union. This guide reflects official sources as of 13 October 2026.

At a glance

Leaders (2026): Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, sworn in on 22 October 2022 as "the first woman in Italy's history to hold this position". President Sergio Mattarella is head of state.
People (2026): about 58.9 million on 1 January 2026 (provisional); Istat calls the population stable.
Economy (2025): GDP of about US$2.55 trillion, ninth in the world in World Bank data, less than 1% behind Russia.
Public debt (2025): 137.1% of GDP, against 87.8% for the euro area (Eurostat).
G20 presidency (2021): the Rome summit of 30 to 31 October 2021.
EU (1958): a founding member, and in the euro since 1 January 1999.

Italy's G20 story

Italy was at the first G20 meeting, of finance ministers and central bank governors in Berlin in December 1999, represented by Treasury Minister Giuliano Amato and Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio.

It took over the presidency from Saudi Arabia on 1 December 2020 and organised its work around three pillars, People, Planet, Prosperity. On 21 May 2021 Italy and the European Union co-hosted the Global Health Summit in Rome, which issued a Rome Declaration on health. That is a separate text from the G20 Rome Leaders' Declaration of 31 October 2021, which set a goal of "vaccinating at least 40 percent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022". The October declaration also called the OECD/G20 two-pillar tax deal "a historic achievement" (the 15% minimum rate is in a separate OECD statement), reaffirmed the Paris aim to "pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C", and promised to end "international public finance for new unabated coal power generation abroad by the end of 2021".

Opening the summit, Prime Minister Draghi, who led the government then, said: "As G20 Presidency, Italy has worked to promote a more equitable recovery". No new Italian presidency appears on the published list, which runs to Korea in 2028.

What Italy wants from the G20

These are the Meloni government's positions, mostly from her speeches, and some are contested.

Fair trade. At Johannesburg in November 2025 she called for "growth based on shared rules and truly fair trade relations" and said "The World Trade Organization needs to be rethought".
Debt for development. Over ten years Italy "plans to convert" the debt of the least developed nations into development projects and to reduce that of medium- and low-income nations by 50%. This is a plan, not a completed cancellation: the UN speech puts the amount to be converted at "over EUR 235 million" and does not say which debts are covered.
Africa. The Mattei Plan is "the national strategy promoted by the Italian Government" for relations with Africa, presented in Rome on 29 January 2024. Meloni says: "our goal is not to create dependency; our goal is to support self-sufficiency".
Energy and climate. She backs "the principle of technological neutrality": "Renewables, gas, hydrogen, biofuels, CO2 capture systems, as well as research into nuclear fusion". She told the UN "This is obviously not about denying climate change" but argued against "ideological extremism". Critics dispute this framing, so present it as Italy's view.
Human-centred AI. Italy's AI law (no. 132 of 2025) promotes responsible, human-centred AI and applies in line with the EU's AI Regulation.
UN reform. Meloni says "new permanent seats are not what are needed". Italy is the "focal point" of the Uniting for Consensus group, which opposes new permanent national seats.

Alliances and groupings

European Union: one of the six that signed the Treaties of Rome in 1957. The EU, not Italy, concluded free trade talks with India on 27 January 2026.
G7: Italy held the 2024 presidency, and the Apulia communique welcomed "the Mattei Plan for Africa launched by Italy."
NATO: one of the 12 founders in 1949.
Uniting for Consensus: its other G20 members are Argentina, Canada, Mexico, the Republic of Korea and Türkiye.
India-led initiatives: the International Solar Alliance, and, from the 2023 New Delhi G20, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the Global Biofuels Alliance.

None of the official sources checked lists Italy in BRICS or OPEC.

Italy and India

Diplomatic relations date from 1947. India's Ministry of External Affairs says Meloni's first state visit after her election was to India in March 2023, when the two launched a Strategic Partnership. On 20 May 2026, during what Meloni called Modi's "first bilateral mission to Italy", they "decided to elevate India-Italy relations to the level of a Special Strategic Partnership."

Trade: India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) puts trade at €14.25 billion in 2025, with a €2.85 billion balance in India's favour. The target is €20 billion by 2029.
Investment: Tata Motors' €3.8 billion purchase of Iveco Group is "the most significant Indian investment in Italy so far", says the MEA.
Students: 5,105 Indians studied at Italian universities in 2025.
The G20: at Johannesburg in 2025 the two adopted a joint initiative against terrorist financing, and Meloni says IMEC "was created within the G20 framework".

They disagree on the Security Council. India wants the "expansion of both categories of membership", which includes new permanent seats; Italy opposes them. Their joint text says only that the UN must become "more representative".

Recent developments

13 February 2026: the second Italia-Africa Summit met in Addis Ababa, the first held in Africa.
17 June 2026: after the G7 summit at Evian, Meloni spoke of managing "global macroeconomic imbalances in a coordinated way".
2 October 2026: at a G7 video summit on energy security, Meloni relaunched her proposal for "a structured dialogue between the G7 and Gulf countries."
Next: Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti is listed for G20 and G7 sessions in mid-October, and the Miami summit is scheduled for 14 to 15 December 2026.

Representing Italy at a Model G20

Speak as Italy, not the EU. On trade, back the EU line. Your own ground is Africa, debt, energy, AI and UN reform.
Likely allies. The EU and G7 partners on energy security and Ukraine; the African Union on investment in Africa; Uniting for Consensus members on UN reform; India on IMEC and AI.
Common ground with the host. The US presidency wants "each nation choosing its own energy mix", close to Meloni's technological neutrality.
Likely red lines. Reasoning from its record, Italy will resist text calling for new permanent Security Council seats, ruling out gas, or rewarding force against Ukraine. Meloni told the UN that Russia "deliberately trampled on Article 2 of the UN Charter"; Russia rejects that account.
Hard questions. Prepare answers on public debt, which rose to 137.1% of GDP in 2025, and on how the 2021 Rome text, which spoke of strengthening the trading system "with the WTO at its core" and of reforming the WTO, fits with Meloni's 2025 line that the WTO "needs to be rethought". If asked about the Mattei Plan's results, note that the figures come from the Italian government.
Phrasing. Use Italy's words: "partnerships are real only when they are equal and generate benefits for all parties involved".
Documents to quote. The Rome Leaders' Declaration (2021), the Global Health Summit's Rome Declaration (2021), the Apulia G7 communique (2024), Meloni's Johannesburg and UN speeches (2025) and the India-Italy Joint Declaration (2026).

What to do next

Turn your research into a paper with how to write a Model G20 position paper, and learn how wording becomes agreed text in how a G20 leaders' declaration is agreed. Then read the G20 Sherpa Track and Finance Track explained and check this year's agenda in the 2026 G20 presidency explained.

Model G20 is One Young India's simulation of the G20 summit for students, held as a three-day residential summit at FLAME University.

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