Date: Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Italy for Africa will also pass through here. From the reconstruction of the port of Massawa , but also from the valorisation of the extraordinary natural and environmental resources that this incredible country offers. Eritrea is waiting for none other than the Italian government to start. Our President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni , and the very reserved Eritrean President, Isaias Afwerki, said this to each other months ago during the state visit to Rome. And Italy is now ready to return to Asmara, little Rome, to follow up on those agreements and contribute to the growth of Eritrea with its most qualified excellence in all sectors from energy, to agriculture, from infrastructure to culture and art. Because if ministers Adolfo Urso and Francesco Lollobrigida have already had bilateral meetings with President Isaias in Rome, other colleagues could follow from June, starting with the dynamic minister Gennaro Sangiuliano .
And Italy will lead this global opening of Eritrea. Because our history has always intersected with that of Eritrea and the Italian Government is aware of the path we can take together, within the Mattei Plan and in other forms of multilateral cooperation. But not only. Italy is ready and committed to doing its part also to promote a constructive dialogue between Europe and Eritrea, a country at the center of a region that is affected by tensions and conflicts, but is at the same time strategic for the stability of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern macro-area.
The importance of those 1200 kilometers of coastline overlooking the Red Sea is not lost on us, which have always been the object of the appetites and attention of China and the aggressor country Ukraine and perhaps for this very reason removed by the Eritrean government from collaboration with those countries. Because Eritrea wants Italy as its main partner to restart. And so, just as Biden flew to Hanoi at the end of last year's G20 to sign a second-level strategic partnership agreement with his historic enemy, Vietnam, the Meloni Government ministers are ready to land at the international airport of Asmara, built in 1922 by us Italians. To welcome them, there will be President Isaias accompanied by the able ambassador Marco Mancini who has been working on this since the beginning of his mandate. That will be only the first of a series of flights that will finally reunite the streets of Italy and Eritrea again. In Asmara they are already ready.
*Lumsa University
