The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Edmondo Cirielli, today welcomed the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs of the Kingdom of Spain, Diego Martínez Belío, at the Farnesina.
In the context of the excellent relations between Italy and Spain, the meeting provided an opportunity to deepen the exchange of views on the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, transatlantic relations, and common European defence. In all these areas, both parties emphasised the need to work together to strengthen the European Union’s global presence.
The meeting also offered an occasion to reiterate Italy’s hope of concluding a bilateral agreement with Spain on dual citizenship, with a view to continuing technical discussions to this end. The strength of the bilateral relationship between Rome and Madrid is also underpinned by a growing Italian community in Spain, currently numbering over 400,000 Italian nationals, with increasingly frequent cases of mixed families. These are situations that urgently require an update to the relevant international legal framework in their favour.
