A press conference was held yesterday morning at the Farnesina by Council Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani to take stock of the issues that Italy intends to put at the center of its year as G7 chair. "We want to strengthen the G7, which has the role of coordinating democracies. We aim to strengthen this collaboration”. In detail, Tajani was focused on the engagements that will see Italian foreign policy involved in the gathering of nations that make up the G7 group: "There will be four G7 meetings under the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry: Capri, Calabria, Pescara and Fiuggi," he specified. The main focus will be, as was to be expected, the situation in the Middle East: "We are aiming for descalation. After this meeting I will talk with the new French Foreign Minister. We are moving with great balance. We are against terrorism. We condemned the inhumane Hamas attack and strongly demanded the release of all hostages. We urged Israel to have a proportionate response. From the very beginning we have urged not to increase in action that could affect civilians". The Italian Foreign Minister went on to announce that he intends to support a European military initiative to intervene in the Red Sea to protect the commercial interests of Italy and the West: "We are working so that there can be a European military mission, perhaps expanding the remit of the already existing mission in Hormuz to the Red Sea, to protect trade. This will be discussed in Brussels on Monday. With France and Germany we are formalizing a proposal for a joint European solution. We propose the participation of non-European countries as well". And, as for Operation Atlanta, which aims to protect slowed commercial ships from attacks by the Houthis, Tajani was quick to point out that "Italian ships have the right to defend those merchant ships that are attacked, but not to make attacks, for that we need a parliamentary passage".
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