The situation in Crimea and Ukraine, the crisis in Venezuela, relations with Lebanon and Italy\u2019s commitment in Afghanistan. These were the main topics addressed during Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini\u2019s address to the Chamber and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees today. Minister Mogherini reiterated that \u201cthe annexation of Crimea is a grave deterioration in the crisis and foreshadows a serious isolation of Russia because it is the result of unjustified unilateral action\u201d. As for the G8 summit in Sochi, Minister Mogherini clarified that \u201cthe preparatory work has been suspended but the G8 format has not been abandoned: we are working to ensure that it is re-asserted\u201d.<\/P>
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OSCE observers to be sent to Crimea<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cDiscussions are going on as we speak on deploying a sizeable OSCE mission to Crimea with several hundred observers\u201d. The foreign minister underscored the need for a partnership between the Atlantic Alliance and Ukraine, adding that anything more would not be timely. \u201cWe don\u2019t feel, and I hope that will continue to be the case in coming weeks, that NATO is the right forum to address the issue of Ukraine. Comments from Kiev on this, ruling out Ukrainian membership of NATO, are reassuring\u201d.<\/P> Venezuela<\/STRONG> giving cause for concern<\/STRONG><\/P> Minister Mogherini told the foreign Affairs Committees that she has summoned the Ambassador of Venezuela, who she will be meeting tomorrow \u201cto obtain direct information and convey to him our concern for Italian interests and for the fate of his country\u201d.<\/P> Lebanon<\/STRONG>: conference in Rome on support for armed forces<\/STRONG><\/P> An international ministerial conference to help strengthen Lebanon\u2019s armed forces will take place in Rome in early summer 2014. The Lebanese armed forces are \u201can instrument of security for the country and therefore for the region, and an acknowledged example of national unity\u201d. Mogherini will be meeting her Lebanese colleague, Gebran Bassil, at the Farnesina today.<\/P> Afghanistan<\/STRONG>: \u201cI\u2019ll be visiting Kabul after the May elections\u201d<\/STRONG><\/P> As regards Italy\u2019s commitment in Afghanistan, \u201c2014 will be a crucial year\u201d, commented Minister Mogherini, who also announced that she will be visiting Kabul after the presidential elections in May. She underscored that after the withdrawal \u201cItaly doesn\u2019t want to disengage, but to engage in a different manner. As a government, we are committed to discussing each development with the Parliament and to supporting Afghanistan\u2019s democratic transition. The country must not turn back, especially on human rights and women\u2019s rights\u201d.<\/P> Development Cooperation: the intention is to increase resources<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cI\u2019m seeking your cooperation because our intention is to increase Development Cooperation resources\u201d, Minister Mogherini told the parliamentarians. \u201cThe government intends to support the rapid approval and implementation of the cooperation reform, the parliamentary process for which is already under way\u201d.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The situation in Crimea and Ukraine, the crisis in Venezuela, relations with Lebanon and Italy\u2019s commitment in Afghanistan. These were the main topics addressed during Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini\u2019s address to the Chamber and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees today. Minister Mogherini reiterated that \u201cthe annexation of Crimea is a grave deterioration in the crisis and […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[398,45,43,9,6,42],"class_list":["post-13802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti","tag-america-latina-e-caraibi","tag-asia-e-oceania","tag-diritti-umani","tag-europa","tag-mediterraneo-e-medio-oriente","tag-unione-europea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13802","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=13802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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