ROME \u2013 \u201cItaly is very interested and will support any political and diplomatic initiative that could lead to a just peace for Ukraine. The entire Atlantic Alliance, all of the countries that want peace, will be ready to speak with Putin if he shows \u2013 truly and in concrete terms \u2013 that that is his genuine interest. I repeat, the time has come to begin working for a just peace for Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, is commenting with Repubblica, in his office in Palazzo Chigi, on US President Joe Boden\u2019s more open stance towards negotiating with Moscow. Minister Tajani is speaking on the eve of the Med Dialogues, meetings promoted by the Farnesina and the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) which will bring leaders and ministers of the wider Mediterranean to Rome.<\/p>\n
Is there any real hope of a diplomatic change of direction on Ukraine?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cRussia is continuing to attack civilians and infrastructure. It wants to use the winter against the population, making any type of dialogue impossible. We all want peace, but it must be attained through Kyiv\u2019s independence, not its surrender. The responsibility for this situation lies entirely with Russia. The Kremlin must now give us concrete signals, instead of bombing the population\u201d.<\/p>\n During the election campaign Salvini and Berlusconi asked for the delivery of arms to Kyiv to cease and for sanctions against Moscow to be reduced. Will the Meloni Government follow this line or stay with Zelensky?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cItaly will continue to follow the NATO and EU line because our strength lies in unity to enable Kyiv to negotiate a just peace\u201d.<\/p>\n Did the decision to supply Aspide anti-aircraft missiles lead to tensions within the majority?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAt present we aren\u2019t sending any other weapons. There\u2019s a route managed by Defence for new arms, on the basis of Ukraine\u2019s requests. However, we\u2019re providing material to repair electricity infrastructure and have made our Civil Protection corps available for the cold weather emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n Will it operate in Ukrainian territory?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe await Ukraine\u2019s requests. But if the cold weather leads to increased numbers of refugees we\u2019re ready to help, including by taking in new refugees\u201d.<\/p>\n Rome had an agreement with Paris to also supply modern Samp-T anti-missile systems. But after the arguments over migrants that hypothesis has been put to rest.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got nothing to do with the migrant dossier. There are technological compatibility problems with the Ukrainian systems\u201d.<\/p>\n The Government broke off relations with France, our ally on the EU economic dossier, over the Ocean Viking, without obtaining anything on migrant flows. Was that the right decision?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cRelations with France were not broken off. We are raising a huge problem \u2013 the migrant situation \u2013 which needs to be resolved at the European level. So far we have obtained satisfactory responses. The Mediterranean cannot become a cemetery; we want to defeat the people smugglers. Italy will propose a Marshall Plan for Africa worth 100 billion, with a growth strategy capable of stopping the departures\u201d.<\/p>\n What will you do when the next ship full of migrants arrives?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cItaly cannot be the only safe port where they can disembark. It\u2019s not a question of being against France or Germany. It\u2019s a question of finding an agreement on the overall management of the flows\u201d.<\/p>\n Paris and Berlin are hosting more migrants than our country.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhen the asylum applications come from Syrian engineers, it\u2019s easier\u201d.<\/p>\n Do you want to move on from the Bossi-Fini [immigration law]?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe need to stop irregular migrants and bring to Italy the people that we need\u201d.<\/p>\n How?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working on a new \u2018flow decree\u2019, this time covering two or three years. The intention is to plan legal arrivals and training for people who want to come to Italy, and reward countries that block the departure of irregular migrants\u201d.<\/p>\n How many people are we talking about?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAbout 70,000 a year. But it\u2019s all still being decided and we don\u2019t yet have definite numbers\u201d.<\/p>\n Will Italy be supplying new patrol boats to Libya?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYes, we\u2019re ready to provide more\u201d.<\/p>\n But the Libyans are accused of acts of violence. How do you plan to avoid them?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThrough political stability and monitoring of the territory\u201d.<\/p>\n Does Italy support the premier in Tripoli, Dbeibah, or his rival, Bashagha?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cItaly has a historic relationship with Tripoli but the goal is and remains elections and national unity\u201d.<\/p>\n Which are the political reference points in Europe for the Meloni Government: France and Germany or Poland and Hungary?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a question of choosing between Paris and Warsaw. We\u2019re a pro-European government\u201d.<\/p>\n But pro-sovereignty too: will Rome support the EU treaty reform that will remove individual countries\u2019 right of veto and increase European sovereignty to the detriment of national sovereignty?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in favour. We need to move from unanimity to a majority on foreign affairs, defence and energy\u201d.<\/p>\n And what\u2019s the government\u2019s position?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t heard any voices raised against it\u201d.<\/p>\n Will Italy lose some of its EU funds in the next tranche of PNRR [National Recovery and Resilience Plan] funding?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe need to do everything possible to prevent that by moving faster on the objectives agreed with Brussels\u201d.<\/p>\n Including by changing those parts of the budgetary adjustments that the EU isn\u2019t entirely convinced about?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think there will be much to change. But if, after the dialogue with Brussels, some parts need to be changed, we\u2019ll think about it\u201d.<\/p>\n Does Rome support the proposed reform of the EU Stability Pact?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Pact is showing its age, a reform is due. But I wonder if its post-COVID reactivation should be further postponed, albeit with amendments\u201d.<\/p>\n Did you discuss Regeni and Zaki with your Egyptian colleague?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI asked for cooperation and I didn\u2019t encounter any obstructiveness. I\u2019m hoping for news sometime soon\u201d.<\/p>\n Luigi Di Maio is on course to become the EU\u2019s envoy to the Gulf. Is the government supporting him?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t oppose him, but his candidacy is an individual, not a government, one. I\u2019ve already said that to Borrell: if he appoints him the decision is his alone\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2013 \u201cItaly is very interested and will support any political and diplomatic initiative that could lead to a just peace for Ukraine. The entire Atlantic Alliance, all of the countries that want peace, will be ready to speak with Putin if he shows \u2013 truly and in concrete terms \u2013 that that is his […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":92348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-92412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviste","tag-ministro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92412","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92414,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92412\/revisions\/92414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}