Italian Premier Matteo Renzi
said the United States is Italy's "principal friend and ally,"
speaking at Florence's American cemetery on the occasion of US
Memorial Day on Monday.
Renzi called the United States "a sister nation" and said
Italy "will never forget its debt to the United States"
following WWII, while also remembering the other nations that
helped Italy.
The cemetery, run by the American Battle Monuments
Commission, is the final resting place for US Army soldiers who
died in WWII fighting in 1944 and 1945.
Renzi said the more than 4,000 crosses there "remind us of
the values that unite us" with which "still today we respond to
those who challenge our values, to those who still today attack
our society, to those who challenge our culture, to those who
want to make us live in terror".
Renzi recalled a John F. Kennedy speech containing the
phrase "not merely peace in our time but peace in all time", and
said "peace isn't eternal, and it has to be nurtured and
protected today more than ever".
Memorial Day commemorates all men and women who have died
in military service for the United States.
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