Abu Dhabi: An unexpected turn of events went down during a global summit in Abu Dhabi recently when Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama suddenly came across his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and chose to go down on one knee to wish her happy birthday in a room full of delegates.
Meloni turned 48 on Wednesday and was attending the World Future Energy Summit in UAE’s Abu Dhabi where she came across Rama. The Albanian PM, much taller than Meloni, then spontaneously went on one knee and wished her a happy birthday while offering a scarf as a gift.
Watch: Albanian PM wishes Giorgia Meloni happy birthday
🇦🇱🇮🇹 Albanian PM Edi Rama knelt before Italian PM Giorgia Meloni during their visit to Abu Dhabi, presenting her with a scarf as a birthday gift and referring to her as “Your Majesty”.
He also tried to place the scarf over her head like a hijab. pic.twitter.com/QSqEuuBexM
— kos_data (@kos_data) January 15, 2025
The lightweight scarf was the creation of an Italian designer who had moved to Albania, Rama explained to Meloni.
Despite their contrasting political ideologies, the two leaders maintain a strong working relationship—Meloni leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy, while Rama heads Albania’s Socialist Party.
Last year, Meloni and Rama struck an agreement to transfer some of the migrants rescued at sea by Italy to detention centres in Albania. However, these centres remain inactive due to ongoing legal challenges to the plan.
During Wednesday’s summit, Italy, Albania, and the United Arab Emirates signed a landmark agreement worth at least €1 billion ($1 billion) to construct a subsea interconnection for renewable energy across the Adriatic Sea.
