ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama presented a gift of a scarf to his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and serenaded her as she celebrated her 48th birthday on Wednesday.
Rama, who is much taller than Meloni, went down on one knee to hand over the present and sang “tanti auguri” (happy birthday) as the two leaders attended the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
The lightweight scarf was the work of an Italian designer who had relocated to Albania, Rama explained to Meloni.
The two leaders have a good working relationship despite contrasting political beliefs – Meloni leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy while Rama heads Albania’s Socialist Party.
Meloni struck a deal with Rama last year to divert some of the migrants Italy picks up at sea to detention centres in Albania. The centres are currently dormant because of legal challenges to the scheme.
At the summit on Wednesday, Italy, Albania and the United Arab Emirates signed a deal worth at least 1 billion euros ($1 billion) to build a subsea interconnection for renewable energy across the Adriatic.
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni in Abu Dhabi; Writing by Keith Weir, editing by Alvise Armellini and Ros Russell)
