Manama – Roberto Alesse, Director of Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM), met yesterday in Rome with Sheikh Ahmed Al Khalifa, President of Bahrain’s Customs Authority. The meeting follows a memorandum of understanding signed last February, which provides for training activities and the exchange of best practices to streamline trade and digitize customs controls.
Since 2022, Bahrain has identified Italy as its main trading partner within the EU, highlighting both the strength of bilateral economic relations and the opportunities offered by closer customs cooperation. “The visit of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to Bahrain has further consolidated our bilateral ties,” Alesse noted, underlining the strategic role of Bahrain’s airport hub and Italy’s ambition to act as a European logistics gateway through ports such as Trieste and Genoa.
He stressed that the partnership with Bahrain is also crucial to the development of the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, launched at the G20 in New Delhi in 2023, which is expected to reshape global trade flows.
The Bahraini delegation is currently in Italy for a training program focused on customs procedures, advanced control technologies, and the analytical work of ADM’s chemical laboratories, considered centers of excellence.