“For close to a year now, the world has been facing one of the most complex challenges in history, as it struggles against a devious and invisible enemy that has radically changed our way of life. The pandemic has also violently affected Western democracies, bringing our economies to their knees and forcing us to restrict our personal freedoms to an extent that was unthinkable just a year ago.
However, 2021 has begun with two important facts. First of all, we finally have the vaccines for Covid, which enables us to look forward with renewed confidence to the near future, to a new normalcy. One of the lessons we have learned is that no one is big enough or strong enough to go it alone, and multilateralism is therefore the only tool that can guarantee peace, stability and well-being for us all.
This brings me to the second important fact of the new year: on January 20, the new Presidency of the United States, our principal ally, will be inaugurated. We are ready to work closely with the new U.S. Administration and I am certain that President Biden will be able to give new impetus to issues that are particularly close to our hearts, such as the strengthening of “effective multilateralism”, a renewed focus on people and the green economy (issues that are at the core of our G-20 Presidency) and a revival of transatlantic relations.
At this current juncture in history, the European Union and the United States are in fact called on to strengthen their historical and cultural ties, in order to map out together the path we must follow to reconstruction. We are facing some epoch-making challenges, such as a vaccination campaign involving hundreds of millions of people on both shores of the Atlantic and the relaunch of our economies, which, being strongly integrated, will be able to recover more swiftly if they support each other. The Italian government will continue to work tirelessly in this direction, both bilaterally and as a loyal and proactive player between the EU, of which we are a proud founding member, and the United States, which is and shall remain our main international ally”.
Statement by Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.
