(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 30 - Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Rome Wednesday that Italy
was "fully aware" of the need to ensure the security of its 5G
networks amid American warnings against using Chinese company
Huawei.
The US says Huawei may be a tool for Chinese espionage.
"We are well aware of the concerns of our American allies," Di
Maio told Pompeo.
"Italy is fully conscious of (the need) to ensure the security
of its 5G networks.
"It remains an absolute priority for us and we are in favour of
common European rules.
Di Maio reiterated that its golden power over 5G projects
"boosts the government's ability to monitor" the issue.
Pompeo said that in talks with Premier Giuseppe Conte earlier,
he had "asked (Italy) to pay attention to the privacy of its
citizens" in setting up 5G networks, possibly with Huawei.
Pompeo said "the Chinese Communist Party is trying to exploit
its presence in Italy for its own strategic purposes, they
aren't here to make sincere partnerships".
The US is also concerned about Italy last year becoming the
first G7 member to sign up to China's ambitious Belt and Road
('New Silk Road') trade and infrastructure investment plan,
citing fears of key trade secrets and technologies slipping into
Beijing's hands.
Di Maio told the press conference with Pompeo that "the message
is clear: Italy is firmly anchored to the US and the EU...a
country like ours is open to the possibility of investments, but
never outside (NATO)".
Di Maio told Pompeo Italy remained "anchored" to the US and NATO
and said "we are counting a lot on US influence".
The foreign minister also thanked the secretary of state for his
"attention" to the case of Chico Forti, an Italian businessman
serving life for murder in Florida who supporters say is the
victim of a miscarriage of justice.
The case is "very dear to the heart" of the Italian government,
which will continue to make every effort to see Forti released,
Di Maio said.
A top Vatican official, meanwhile on Wednesday accused US
President Donald Trump's administration of using Pope Francis
with an event staged during Pompeo's visit to Rome. Paul Richard
Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States,
answered in the affirmative when asked by ANSA if the US
unilaterally organizing a symposium on religious freedom at its
embassy to the Holy See amounted to exploitation of the pope in
the final stages of the US presidential campaign.
"Yes, that is precisely why the pope will not meet American
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo," Gallagher said. During his
visit, Pompeo is set to have talks with Vatican Secretary of
State Pietro Parolin, but not Pope Francis. Vatican sources had
said it was felt a meeting by the pope with such a senior figure
in Trump's administration would be inappropriate so close to the
elections. Pompeo and Parolin are expected to discuss the
Vatican's relations with China, after the former accused the
Holy See of being too soft on Beijing and was critical of the
likelihood that a historic agreement with the Chinese
authorities on the nomination of bishops will be renewed. Pompeo
called on "every faith leader to find the courage to confront
religious persecution against their own communities, and those
of other faith" during a speech in Rome on Wednesday. He told
the symposium: "nowhere is religious freedom under attack more
than in China. This because, like all Communist regimes, the
Chinese Communist Party considers itself the ultimate moral
authority. An ever more repressive CCP, frightened by its own
lack of democratic legitimacy, is working day and night to
extinguish the lamp of freedom...above all religious freedom, on
a horrible scale". Parolin, who attended the symposium along
with Gallagher, was asked if the Holy See was irked by Pompeo's
recent criticism of its China policy in the conservative
Catholic journal First Things. "I should not say irritation, but
rather surprise for this statement that we did not expect even
though we have known for some time the position of Trump and
Secretary Pompeo in particular," the cardinal replied. "And
surprise because a visit to Rome was already scheduled in which
Pompeo was set to meet the leaders of the Holy See, and we
deemed that the most opportune and suitable seat to talk about
these things, and we will do so: we will meet tomorrow and there
will be a means of discussing these issues". Parolin said the
symposium had been seen as being linked to domestic US politics.
"This interpretation has been given...I do not have proof but
it's a thought that you can make," he said, highlighting the
need to leave the pope out of the US election campaign because
the issue of Chinese bishops "is an inter-church issue". Parolin
said Pompeo had asked to see the pope but "the Pope said clearly
that we don't receive political figures during the election
campaign," and stressing that a secretary of state usually meets
his counterpart, in this case Parolin. (ANSA).