{"id":10000,"date":"2018-02-26T13:32:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T12:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/sala_stampa\/archivionotizie\/comunicati\/2018\/02\/settimana-dal-19-al-25-febbraio-2\/"},"modified":"2018-02-26T13:32:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T12:32:32","slug":"settimana-dal-19-al5-febbraio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/sala_stampa\/archivionotizie\/approfondimenti\/2018\/02\/settimana-dal-19-al5-febbraio\/","title":{"rendered":"Week from 19 to 25 February"},"content":{"rendered":"

A diplomatic mission to South America with the economy at the fore, along with other issues
<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe targeting of innocent civilians in indiscriminate acts of violence is unacceptable and never justified,\u201d said Minister Angelino Alfano on Monday morning, in his capacity as Chairperson-in-office of the OSCE, together with the Secretary General of the Organisation, Thomas\u00a0Greninger. This follows the terrorist attack in Dagestan in the Russian Federation where five women were killed in an Orthodox Church. \u201cI condemn in the strongest possible terms these attacks on innocent people in a place of worship as an attempt to instil fear in our societies and sow the seeds of division between communities,\u201d added Alfano.<\/p>\n

The minister then met the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, John Sullivan at the Farnesina, where they discussed European and global security challenges and confirmed the strong bonds of friendship between the United States and Italy.\u00a0 They also spoke about Ukraine, the Mediterranean, Libya, Sahel and migration issues.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"1902asullivanmae05\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

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After finishing up his commitments in Rome, Alfano left on a diplomatic mission to South America.\u00a0On Tuesday<\/strong>, he began a series of meetings in Bogot\u00e1 dealing with bilateral relations, Italian support in the post-conflict stage, and the crisis in neighbouring Venezuela where, according to the Minister, \u201c104,000 Italians live\u201d. Alfano reiterated Italian support for the peace process in Colombia, which lays the groundwork for future development of the country. He informed the President, Juan Manuel Santos, that our business people \u201cwish to explore the new opportunities offered by peace\u201d. \u00a0Colombia has become more attractive to Italian companies with groups like ENEL, Salini, Ferrero and ANAS having a well-established presence in the country.<\/p>\n

Alfano also signed a memorandum with the Minister of Energy, German Arce Zapata, to \u201chelp promote sustainable, responsible development of natural resources and encourage bilateral investments in renewable energy sources\u201d. He also had \u201cvery positive talks\u201d with the Minister for Agriculture, Juan Guillermo Zuluaga.\u00a0 The Minister congratulated his counterpart, Maria Angela Holguin, for \u201cthe efforts that the Colombian government is making to assist\u201d persons fleeing Venezuela, and reaffirmed that \u201ceconomic diplomacy is our first priority\u201d when he met with Italian business people.<\/p>\n

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\"holguin\"<\/p>\n

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On Wednesday<\/strong>, he then left for Sao Paolo, his first stop in Brazil. However, before starting his meetings, the Minister expressed his thoughts on the victims of the war in Syria. \u201cWe thought we had seen everything in the Syrian crisis: massacres, chemical weapons and serious violations of human rights. But the terrible news from eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus, where the attack by the Syrian regime is barbarically murdering numerous civilians, women and children, shows that a tragic new low has been reached in Syria. I would like to add my voice to the UN appeal for an immediate ceasefire, to end the siege, and to reopen a humanitarian corridor to ensure full access to aid, especially food and medicine\u201d.\u00a0 He added \u201cthe Damascus regime is responsible for this brutal violence. I would urgently call on the international and regional players involved, especially the Astana troika countries (Russia, Iran and Turkey), to put a stop to this tragedy\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"siria\"<\/p>\n

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Alfano met the former President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and the mayor of S\u00e3o Paulo, Joao Doria, and said that \u201cthe historic Italian presence in this economic capital of Brazil is a solid foundation from which to relaunch bilateral relations. The main areas of interest are energy, infrastructure, agricultural SMEs, design and economics\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"2702settimana\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He touched on many topics with his counterpart, Aloysio Nunes, on Thursday<\/strong> in Brasilia, starting with the Battisti case: \u201cWe would like to thank the Brazilian government for the positive role played in a favourable decision in the Battisti case,\u201d said Alfano. \u201cWith utmost regard for judicial independence, we hope that the positive atmosphere between our countries will help resolve the issue, which is still deeply felt in Italy\u201d. Once again, the Minister raised the issue of Venezuela, which is \u201cregarded with great alarm\u201d by the Italian\u00a0government. Both\u00a0he and Nunes agreed that \u201cinclusive political dialogue\u201d was necessary to find a solution.<\/p>\n

The talks also focused on the economy, where Alfano noted that\u00a0\u201cItaly is the eighth biggest foreign investor in the country\u201d. Staying with economic matters, the Minister and President Temer \u201ctalked in detail about the various articulations of our strategic partnership in politics and the economy\u201d. He mentioned the negotiations between the EU and Mercosur and said that \u201cwe are committed to working together\u201d to ensure their success.<\/p>\n

\"2702brasile\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Friday<\/strong> he left for Belo Horizonte where he visited the Fundacao Torino school and opened the Italian consulate before leaving for Rio de Janeiro, where he met with top management of leading Italian companies. He returned to Italy over the weekend.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A diplomatic mission to South America with the economy at the fore, along with other issues \u201cThe targeting of innocent civilians in indiscriminate acts of violence is unacceptable and never justified,\u201d said Minister Angelino Alfano on Monday morning, in his capacity as Chairperson-in-office of the OSCE, together with the Secretary General of the Organisation, Thomas\u00a0Greninger. […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}