Rome has expressed support for Saudi Arabia to join the GCAP fighter jet program, which currently includes Italy, Britain and Japan. This was stated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, quoted by "Reuters".
During his visit to Saudi Arabia at the weekend, Meloni noted that opening up the program to a fourth country would take time.
“We are “in favor“ of including Saudi Arabia, but obviously it will not happen immediately“, Meloni specified during his visit to Bahrain. She added that the project has yet to be finalized between the three founding countries.
Last year, Italy, Japan and the UK announced that they were considering expanding the sixth-generation multirole fighter program by including new countries at a later stage.
In September 2023, the three countries signed an agreement to develop an advanced fighter. This came a year after they began their defense industry cooperation by merging London and Tokyo's separate next-generation fighter projects.
The new multirole fighter is expected to make its first flight in 2035, with the joint development phase to begin this year.