Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Paolo Gentiloni received telephone congratulations on his new post from the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Poland, Israel and Albania, followed later in the evening by a call from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Gentiloni also visited the offices of the Ministry in Rome and sent a message to all ministry staff and Ambassadors of Italy.
Speaking with Polish Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, the head of the Farnesina acknowledged Italy’s strong bilateral relations with Warsaw, underscoring that Poland’s participation in the 2015 Milan EXPO was a significant consequence of that relationship. The two ministers agreed on support for the Junker plan for 300 billion in investments over the 2015-2017 biennial, as well as on not recognising the outcome of the elections held in the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Minister Gentiloni’s conversation with Israeli Minister Avidgor Lieberman, who invited him to visit Israel in the near future, confirmed the soundness of bilateral relations and the mutual interest in further developing them. Gentiloni expressed his hope in the rapid resumption of the Middle East peace process and reaffirmed Italy’s traditional position on the two-State solution as the only feasible one.
In his exchange with Albanian Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati, Minister Gentiloni reiterated Italy’s support for the Balkans’ EU integration and his congratulations for Tirana’s impressive results in this regard. The two ministers agreed on the advisability of convening a trilateral meeting in early 2015 of the foreign ministers of Italy, Albania and Serbia.
Finally, upon undertaking his new post, Gentiloni made the rounds of the offices of the Farnesina Palace in Rome to convey a message to all foreign ministry staff. In a separate message to all Ambassadors of Italy stressing the crucial importance of foreign policy to the future of our country and economy, he urged the mission heads to call attention to, even via his own personal e-mail address, any questions or opportunities of particular importance to our nation.
