Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani met today with the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jasim AlBudaiwi, to exchange views on the main regional crises and on strengthening cooperation between Italy and the Council’s member countries.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat for the establishment of a structured mechanism for political consultations. The main areas of cooperation include maritime security, counter-terrorism, protection of critical infrastructure, energy security, connectivity, and the development of strategic corridors, including IMEC.<\/p>\n
Minister Tajani reaffirmed Italy’s support for strengthening the strategic partnership between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council and for more decisive European action in the region, accompanied by an ambitious investment program. Italy will work within the EU to promote the GCC’s accession to a free trade agreement with the EU, which will open new opportunities for Italian and European companies. Tajani and AlBudaiwi also agreed to soon organize a business forum between Italy\u2019s \u00a0and Gulf countries\u2019 companies, with the European Commission\u2019s involvement, to further promote trade.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, considerable attention was devoted to the evolving regional situation. While reaffirming his solidarity with the Gulf countries following the drone and missile attacks, Minister Tajani expressed his hope that the ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran could quickly lead to a comprehensive agreement, which is essential for strengthening stability in the Middle East and ensuring the freedom and security of international trade routes – a strategic interest for an exporting country like Italy. Minister Tajani also reaffirmed Italy’s commitment to stability in Syria and Lebanon, welcoming the Memorandum of Understanding reached with Israel and reiterating the need to consolidate the negotiation process, strengthen the State’s authority throughout the country, and support the Lebanese Armed Forces. Finally, with specific reference to Gaza, Minister Tajani emphasized the priority of strengthening the truce, ensuring full access to humanitarian aid, and supporting the ongoing negotiations in Cairo on the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani met today with the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jasim AlBudaiwi, to exchange views on the main regional crises and on strengthening cooperation between Italy and the Council’s member countries. During the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and […]","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":197777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,6,28,42],"class_list":["post-197785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comunicati","tag-diplomazia-economica","tag-mediterraneo-e-medio-oriente","tag-ministro","tag-unione-europea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197785","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197788,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197785\/revisions\/197788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}