The Med Dialogues 2016 conference
opened Thursday in Rome and will run through Saturday, December
3, tackling some of the biggest crises in the Mediterranean.
"Part of our future is dependent on what happens in the
Mediterranean," Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said in
his opening remarks, "and this holds true not only for the
countries on its shores: it's also true to all of Europe, Africa
and other parts of the world."
The Islamic State (ISIS) could be defeated in 2017, the
minister noted.
"I think that 2017 could be the year of the final defeat of
ISIS in Sirte, Mosul and Raqqa. However, post-defeat challenges
will remain before us", he said, including reconstruction,
security and awareness that the solution "will not be only
military. It will be a challenge involving the military,
economic and cultural spheres."
Britain has decided to leave the EU but has not left Europe
as proven by its work helping partners rescue migrants in the
Mediterranean, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in his
speech.
He added that British warships were saving migrants and
neutralising traffickers. "Our country may have decided to leave
the European Union, but it has not left Europe, nor our
commitment to working with our partners," he said.
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit meanwhile
urged Western nations to "please stay out of our region".
"There has been an insistence on intervening" in the
Mediterranean and the Middle East, but "these interventions have
only produced disasters", he said, referring to Western nations
in general but especially the UK and the US.
Before achieving a new regional order, Aboul-Gheit said, "a
few fundamental issues need to be resolved: ensuring the
inviolability of borders; understanding how to keep the idea of
nation states in Libya, Syria and Iraq; and how to prevent
intervention by neighboring countries."
Gentiloni stressed that "Italy's largest and top foreign
policy priority is, obviously, the Mediterranean", and Italy
will "make use of the proposals and reflections that surface in
these days".
The minister noted that Italy will host the G7 in 2017 and
will hold the seat of the non-permanent 2017-18 term of the UN
Security Council, as well as hosting celebrations for the 60th
anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in the coming year.
A key moment for the conference will be a meeting between US
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov on Friday, especially given the increasingly
critical situation in Syria in recent days.
The conference, organised by the Italian Foreign Ministry
and the Institute for International Public Studies (ISPI), will
host representatives from 55 countries including heads of state,
ministers, and leaders in the worlds of finance, international
relations and civil society.
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