President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has returned to Abuja after participating in the Aqaba Process Heads of State and Government-level Meeting held in Rome, Italy.
The Aqaba Process is a counter-terrorism initiative launched in 2015 by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, aimed at strengthening international cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism.
The Rome edition of the summit was co-chaired by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Government of Italy.
According to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the high-level meeting, held on Wednesday, October 15, at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, focused on enhancing regional and global collaboration, with special attention to counter-terrorism efforts in West Africa.
The session was attended by several world leaders, including King Abdullah II of Jordan, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and the Presidents of Nigeria, Chad, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Also present were Azouz Nasri, President of Algeria’s Upper House, and delegations from Côte d’Ivoire, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Senegal, and Uzbekistan, alongside special envoys and security experts.The meeting was held behind closed doors.
On the sidelines of the summit, President Tinubu held bilateral discussions with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Massad Boulos, Senior Adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump on Arab and African Affairs.
The talks centered on strengthening partnerships in economic cooperation, energy, and security.President Tinubu also met with the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, where discussions focused on promoting religious harmony in Nigeria and countering disinformation campaigns falsely portraying the country as intolerant of religious diversity.
Since its inception, the Aqaba Process has convened 33 meetings at different levels, from Heads of State summits to technical expert sessions, built around three core pillars: prevention, coordination, and closing operational gaps in counterterrorism efforts.
