Italy-France Meeting in Rome in the day Italy restarts

Italy-France Meeting in Rome

Rome [ENA] Italy is restarting today and is set to return to normality. The total opening of the country wants to show foreign States a united and compact Italy, inside which it is possible to move freely. And in this symbolic day the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, had a constructive and cordial meeting with the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

A sign of the closeness between the two countries. The meeting’s intense agenda focused on the two Countries’ bilateral and European relations and especially dwelt on Libya. In fact, the main points of the talks were: the restart after the lockdown , industrial cooperation, Libya and terrorism. The head of Parisian diplomacy relaunched also the so called Quirinal Treaty. The two ministers recorded a great convergence of views and in their intention to work in close coordination over the next few months. "It's an important message, of reassurance, that we are giving as Italy to the whole world," said Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.   

Answering to a question about the Italy-France Meeting in Rome the French minister re-launched the so-called Quirinal Treaty, the bilateral agreement with Italy which was frozen due to the growing distance between Paris and Rome during the 14 months of the yellow-green executive. The goal is to coordinate the initiatives of the two executives. Italy has been excluded from the privileged relationship between France and Germany within the European Union. On the occasion of a bilateral Italy-France in September 2017, the idea of a “Quirinal Treaty” emerged to replicate the Élysée Treaty signed in 1963 between France and West Germany. "The Quirinale is now", said Le Drian summarizing his thought .

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke of "sincere friendship" between Italy and France and "frank dialogue on the various international dossiers" highlighting several dossiers that have seen Rome and Paris close together, from the opening of the borders to face the coronavirus up to the fight against terrorism. On this latter issue, Minister Di Maio recalled the virtual meeting of the 32 members of the select group of the Global Anti-Daesh Coalition scheduled for tomorrow, which will be chaired by the head of Italian diplomacy together with the American counterpart Mike Pompeo. The Libya dossier is particularly hot, and both Di Maio and Le Drian who spoke of "convergence" on the topic, in particular in the fight against

interference, referred to it during the press conference. In relation to Libya, Minister Di Maio expressed the will to increase joint efforts with France to put an end to the fighting and relaunch the political process, focusing attention on loosening tensions, putting in place a lasting ceasefire, fully respecting the UN embargo and outlining adequate economic and security guarantees to rebuild mutual trust between the Libyan parties.  The Italian Foreign Minister expressed "concern" for the embargo violation and for this purpose has re-launched the European operation Irini. The dialogue along the path indicated by the Berlin Conference, added Di Maio, is the only credible solution for ceasefire and for reconciliation of Libya.

Giuseppe Conte

Tourism is another issue on which Minister Di Maio and the government are working and in the next days the Foreign Minister will go on a mission to Germany on Wednesday, in Slovenia on Saturday and in Greece on Tuesday. Di Maio is going to explain to his colleagues Italy is ready to receive foreign tourists from June 15 and that we will act with the utmost transparency. The internal situation, all the data on the infections, will always be public. Italy never accepts blacklists and has nothing to hide, on the contrary it always acted responsibly and transparently and will continue to do so.The coronavirus crisis should be used to redesign Italy, Premier Giuseppe Conte said in the evening in explaining the next phase of the emergence.