The Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Vincenzo Amendola, is on a mission to Turkey. The Government official met today with the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Ümit Yalçın, the deputy Undersecretary for Europe, Mehmet K. Bozay, and the Undersecretary of the Ministry for European Affairs, Selim Yenel. The topics of their talks were: the situations in Libya, Syria and Iraq; immigration; and security, with a special focus on cooperating to fight terrorism.
Meeting with his Turkish counterparts, Mr Amendola discussed and confirmed their excellent bilateral relations and Italy’s interest in maintaining a dialogue with Ankara, also at European level. Undersecretary Amendola and his Turkish colleagues underlined the importance of further enhancing their cooperation in Libya, where Italy and Turkey share the objective of consolidating the role of the institutions in Skhirat and guaranteeing the centrality of Tripoli and the role played by the West in assuring national balances.
“We think that it is very important to maintain an open dialogue on all the important issues such as stabilising the crises in the North Africa and Middle East regions, managing migration flows and fighting terrorism,” Mr Amendola said, confirming the outcome of a recent meeting between Minister Alfano and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Cavusoglu.
Mr Amendola added: “Along the track opened by Minister Alfano, we expect Ankara to play a positive role in the region.” He went on: “We believe that it would be expedient to make further strides forward in the bilateral economic partnership, also in the light of the excellent outcome of the first JETCO (Joint Economic and Trade Commission) organised in Istanbul on 22 February that was led, for Italy, by the Minister for Economic Development, Carlo Calenda.”
In the afternoon, Mr Amendola held talks with Ambassador Christian Berger, Head of the European Union Delegation in Ankara. The Undersecretary’s visit continued with a meeting with the Vice Co-president of the Democratic People’s Party (HPD), Mr Hisyar Ozsoy.
In the evening, the Undersecretary participated in a meeting, held at the Italian Embassy, with representatives of civil society, think tanks, the media and Turkish academia.
The visit will end tomorrow with two more meetings. The first is with Jean-Marie Garelli, UNHCR Deputy Representative, and the second with Selin Sayek Boke, Vice President and Spokesperson of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
