Today in Campidoglio we will celebrate, with the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, and the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, the first Italian Archaeology Day abroad, in the presence of the 184 Directors of the Italian Archaeological, Anthropological and Ethnological Missions backed by the Foreign Ministry abroad.
From the first archaeological mission in Morocco at the end of the 19th century, we have reached the number of 246 missions operating in 66 countries today. It is a system that involves several thousand Italian and foreign researchers and scholars, and relies on scientific collaborations between our leading research organisations and those of the countries in which we operate.
We have reached this significant result thanks to the work carried out with tenacity and conviction over time, developing skills and experience that we make available to partner countries in an equal and non-paternalistic manner, especially through the training of young archaeologists on site, and by contributing to the discovery and protection of their roots and also to the fight against trafficking in archaeological and artistic heritage, thanks to the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
Archaeological research is a fundamental tool of our cultural diplomacy, a strategic asset for developing bilateral relations and contributing to mutual understanding.
Promoting ever-closer cultural cooperation with our neighbouring countries is a winning strategy that is already bearing fruit, thanks to growing collaboration between governments, universities, researchers and companies operating in the fields of archaeology, restoration and conservation, and which we want to strengthen further.
This action also fits perfectly into the broader strategy promoted by the government to make Italy a protagonist once again, especially in the Mediterranean basin, the cradle of our civilisation and the region in which the primary interests of our foreign policy are defined.
The challenge for the future is to improve our primacy in the cultural sphere, and to establish and reaffirm it in the world, with the ever more convinced support of myself and all the structures of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
