Meeting between Italian Deputy Minister Edmondo Cirielli and the Ambassadors of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Today at the Farnesina, Italy’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Edmondo Cirielli, working closely with the Deputy Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Vannia Gava, chaired a meeting with the Ambassadors of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan accredited to Italy. The meeting provided an opportunity for the top management of SOGESID SPA (President Roberto Mantovanelli and CEO Errico Stravato, among others, were in attendance) – an engineering and specialised technical support company wholly owned by the Italian state – to present a project proposal to mitigate the consequences of climate change in the Aral Sea, an area of Central Asia at high risk of desertification. The project idea, which envisages targeted interventions for the integrated environmental regeneration of the Aral Sea basin, also falls within the framework of the Italian presidency of the EU-Central Asia High-Level Conference on Environment and Water. During the meeting, it was also proposed to consider, among the various tools available, the involvement of the Italian Climate Fund, the main national public instrument for pursuing the objectives undertaken by Italy in the context of international agreements on climate and environment.