The status of regional Mediterranean relations will be the central focus of the ninth foreign ministers conference of the Western Mediterranean Dialogue (5+5), scheduled for Monday 20 February n Rome (Villa Madama), to be enlarged in the afternoon to the FOROMED format. The conference will be co-chaired by Minister Giulio Terzi and his Tunisian colleague Mohamed Mouldi Keffi.
The Mediterranean is an Italian strategic foreign policy priority, thus the 5+5 Dialogue meeting will have a “concrete and operational nature” regarding the topics on the agenda (regional security, migration flows, energy, environmental protection and development), Terzi explained, underscoring the we have noted among the countries of the southern Mediterranean a “strong demand for Italy, for our country’s presence: this is a need expressed by political and economic forces alike, because we are seen as a country capable of better focusing the European Union’s attention on this common home that is the Mediterranean”. Facilitating the transition under way in the countries of the Arab Spring, Terzi stressed, “calls for rapid intervention with concrete aid and long-term strategies”.
Later that afternoon the conference will be enlarged to the FOROMED format with Egypt, Greece, Turkey, the Arab League and the UNioin for the Mediterranean.
