ROME, AUGUST 1 – “There is more need for diplomacy today than there was in a more regulated world. Today’s an evolving world, in which new actors such as China, India, some Latin American countries and Africa appeared overbearingly on the scene”, Italy’s Permanent representative to the UN, Mariangela Zappia, said during an ANSA Forum organized in the hall of the Farnesina Crisis Unit on the sidelines of the XIII Conference of the Italian Ambassadors, of which the Italian news agency is media partner.
In this context, said Zappia, “today diplomacy must be more proactive and reactive than ever”. As for Italy’s role “there is curiosity abroad, for a thousand reasons. We are a country that knows how to dialogue with everyone. We have an ability to talk to everyone, that is a rare gift. ”
Zappia was among a number of Ambassadors who spoke at the Forum. “Today in the EU nothing is taken for granted. People have lived for decades with the idea that the policy of small steps could lead to a gradual integration of Europe, but this is no longer the case: today’s Europe is going ahead in fits and starts but it’s still moving obliging the parts to act flexibly without prejudices and foreclosures”, said Maurizio Massari, Italy’s permanent representative to the EU, during the Forum.
“China is a huge market that we can benefit from, we try to create business opportunities that translate into greater opportunities for our country”, said the Italian ambassador in Beijing, Ettore Sequi. “We need to create flows of knowledge and of intelligence. Human capital is fundamental, in this diplomacy is irreplaceable “.
According to the Italian Ambassador in Washington, Armando Varricchio, “the US is a great ally and the history of Italian democracy is intrinsically linked to US democracy: we share not only strategic and political interests but values and objectives”. Varricchio added that “obviously, as among close friends ,we must tell the truth and everyone must express their points of view”. (@OnuItalia)
