One year on from the start of the revolution, and a few days from the opening of the people\u2019s assembly, Italy sends Egypt a message of solidarity on its long and arduous road to democracy. A message that reiterates the importance of Rome\u2019s strategic partnership with Cairo from economic and cultural standpoints, while also urging, and obtaining, guarantees on the defence of religious minorities and of pluralism. With Minister for Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi\u2019s visit to Cairo, and the message he carried from President of the Republic Giorgio Napoiltano to interim head of state Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, Italy reminded political and religious leaders of \u201cthe ancient friendship that binds our two countries\u201d and our nation\u2019s solidarity with Egypt \u201con the road to democracy, justice and peace\u201d. Minister Terzi\u2019s busy agenda of meetings included those with Tantawi, Prime Minister Kamel El Ganzoury and Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr. These interlocutors \u201cgave me the clear sensation that they shared these principles in the very challenging endeavour to bring democracy to Egyptian institutions\u201d, Terzi said, after a series of meetings with political and religious leaders in Egypt. \u201cIn this sense Italy\u2019s strategic partnership with Egypt is something that will help us to share the challenges\u201d, he added. The visit also offered an opportunity to renew Italy\u2019s pledge to defend freedom of worship and religious communities in meetings with Copt bishops and with the Grand Muft\u00ec of Egypt, the second-highest spiritual leader of Sunni Islam. \u201cI found the Grand Muft\u00ec of Egypt to be very open-minded and moderate, which is precisely in line with what we Europeans expect to encounter in the more cultivated and steadfast of the Islamic culture\u201d. The visit was also an occasion on which to reassure the country\u2019s leaders that Italy, Egypt\u2019s top European trade partner, intends to contribute to its economic development. \u201cItalian firms have stayed on in the most trying moments, and will remain to help the Egyptian economy grow\u201d, Terzi confirmed, also announcing an immediate $100-million debt conversion to be invested in development projects. For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr promised that Italian firms operating in Egypt, and Italian investors who decide to go to Egypt, \u201ccan consider themselves safe\u201d. Finally, Italy is one of Egypt\u2019s top donor countries, with cooperation initiatives underway for an overall value of \u20ac158 million.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year on from the start of the revolution, and a few days from the opening of the people\u2019s assembly, Italy sends Egypt a message of solidarity on its long and arduous road to democracy. A message that reiterates the importance of Rome\u2019s strategic partnership with Cairo from economic and cultural standpoints, while also urging, […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,6],"class_list":["post-21069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti","tag-diritti-umani","tag-mediterraneo-e-medio-oriente"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21069","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=21069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}