NATO fundamental to Italy foreign policy

(ANSA) - Rome, April 4 - NATO is fundamental to Italian foreign policy, President Sergio Mattarella said Thursday.
    "Italy has made of its choice to join a pact between free and equal nations a foundation of its foreign policy," he said in a statement, recalling the preamble of NATO's founding 1949 treaty, which stressed the importance of "living in peace with all peoples and all governments".
    The Atlantic Alliance was founded on freedom and the pre-eminence of law, he said.
    Mattarella issued the statement for NATO's 70th anniversary celebrations.
    He later told visiting students at the presidential palace that international treaties like NATO's have always been a "precious instrument"m and are especially precious today.