Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Lapo Pistelli met today in Rome with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA) Amb. Yukiya Amano. Their discussions centred on the Agency’s role in Iranian nuclear negotiations, Italy’s contribution to the AIEA’s activities, the Deputy Foreign Minister’s participation in the upcoming conference on nuclear security in Vienna (1-5 July) and prospects for collaboration within the context of EXPO 2015 in Milan, in light of the Agency’s involvement in the sectors of food and water security.
The Deputy Minister’s meeting with Amano on the nuclear question, which followed his reception of new Iranian Ambassador to Italy Jahanbakhsh Mozzafari, shed light on the opportunity that the Iranian presidential election has created, and the consequent need for all the parties involved to embrace it in that spirit of compromise that is the only route to the positive result that everyone has been hoping for.
Deputy Minister Pistelli stressed deep appreciation and support for Amano as leader of the AIEA, recalling also the substantial financial contributions that Italy makes to the Agency’s ordinary budget, the Technical Cooperation Fund that finances activities concerning nuclear applications in developing countries, as well as to the Nuclear Security Fund-supported International School on Nuclear Security organised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the AIEA and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste.