Italy on UN SC for conflict prevention (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, January 10 - Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said Tuesday Italy had joined the United Nations Security Council "in a 2017 that looks like being full of commitments and increased international responsibilities for our country." He said "the special session of the Security Council, in the course of the morning, focuses on the issue of the prevention of conflicts and reaching a sustainable peace".
    Alfano said "in this seat I will bring high the voice of Italy which has an appreciated and multi-year experience in the sector, bringing, together with my colleagues, some innovative points to include the safeguard of the environment and the cultural heritage in the framework of an updated and integrated vision of the action of prevention".
    "In this framework must be inserted the meeting with Antonio Guterres, the new United Nations Secretary-General, who started his mandate on January 1 and who is seeking, also with our support, a strengthened role of coordination in the crucial sectors of wide-ranging security".
    "It is during the talks with Guterres that I will address, among other things, issues of utmost importance such as the reform of the SEcurity Council and the functioning of the Organisation, towards which Italy brings advanced proposals and solutions".
    "To complete such an important day," Alafano concluded, "I will inaugurate with my colleague from the Netherlands, Bert Koenders, the fascinating photographic show on the 'Pillars of Cooperation' and I will meet the President of the General Assembly, Fiji's Peter Thomson, to discuss ways of organising the work.
    "At the end, a series of bilateral talks with colleagues from the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia".