Rome was the starting point for Afghan President Hamid Karzai\u2019s diplomatic tour of Europe to sign a number of long-term bilateral agreements. In the Cabinet Office at Palazzo Chigi, Karzai signed a bilateral agreement with Prime Minister Mario Monti that aims to strengthen political dialogue, security and police force cooperation as well as economic collaboration and the fight against drug trafficking.<\/P>
\n
Italy will not abandon Afghanistan, stated Monti. He explained that \u201cthe central message of today\u2019s meeting is that Italy\u2019s responsibility towards and partnership with Afghanistan will not be withdrawn when the military forces leave\u201d. The Premier also expressed a special thanks \u201cfor the sacrifices made by the Italian soldiers and volunteers who have operated in Afghanistan\u201d. He continued, \u201cFor over ten years now, Italy has stood at Afghanistan\u2019s side in support of the country\u2019s pacification and economic and social reconstruction. We also have over 4000 soldiers there as part of the ISAF contingent in the civil cooperation programme\u201d. Turning to Afghanistan\u2019s future, Monti explained that Italy \u201cwill support the Afghan Government in the delicate process of reconciliation with the armed insurgency, on condition that it rejects violence, recongises the Constitution and respects Afghanistan\u2019s sovereignty\u201d. <\/P>
\n
President Karzai invited Monti to visit his country soon. He also appealed to Italian companies to \u201ccome to my country to benefit from, and benefit, Afghanistan, especially by exploiting our mineral resources\u201d. He declared that \u201cnot only does today\u2019s agreement add to ten years of help and support, it also deepens the centuries-long relationship between our two peoples\u201d. He noted that \u201cthanks to the hard-earned money provided by Italian tax-payers, you have laid a milestone in the reconstruction of the Afghan people. Your support\u201d, added Karzai, \u201cis enabling us to rebuild our country\u201d. <\/P>
\n
Before meeting Monti, President Karzai had a discussion with the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini. He expressed the Afghan people\u2019s gratitude to Italy for the fact that \u201cyoung men and women are ready to sacrifice their lives for our people\u201d. <\/P>
\n
Yesterday afternoon, 25 January 2012, Karzai met the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, and Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi at the Quirinal Palace.<\/P>
\n
On Friday 27 January the Afghan President will leave Rome for Paris, where he will be signing a cooperation agreement with the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The last leg of his trip will be London, to sign a similar agreement with the British premier, David Cameron.<\/P>
\n
\u00a0<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rome was the starting point for Afghan President Hamid Karzai\u2019s diplomatic tour of Europe to sign a number of long-term bilateral agreements. In the Cabinet Office at Palazzo Chigi, Karzai signed a bilateral agreement with Prime Minister Mario Monti that aims to strengthen political dialogue, security and police force cooperation as well as economic collaboration […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,29],"class_list":["post-21026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti","tag-asia-e-oceania","tag-cooperazione-sviluppo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026","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=21026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}