Roma 29 April 2013
Interim Foreign Minister Mario Monti leaves post to Ministro Emma Bonino
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs changed hands this morning, with interim minister Mario Monti leaving his post to Minister Emma Bonino.
The ceremony offered an opportunity for a cordial encounter, extended also to the upper echelons of the foreign ministry, and a review of priority concerns. Both ministers underscored the importance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the promotion of Italy’s and its citizens’ interests in all international spheres.
Foreign policy
Ample attention was given to foreign policy, and in that regard Mario Monti and Emma Bonino pointed out the European and Atlantic dimensions in Italy’s outward reach, emphasising that our country would have to continue to play an incisive role in fostering a European integration that boosts both citizens’ confidence in the Union’s values and promotes concrete efforts on behalf of the development and growth of Member States.
Marines: fair and rapid solution
The two ministers also stressed the commitment that the entire government is called upon to shoulder regarding the case of Italian marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, in light of the New Delhi Supreme Court’s Friday ruling. The goal is to complete a timely investigation leading to the case’s fair and rapid resolution.
Exchange of views on regional crisis areas
Monti and Bonino also had an in-depth exchange of views on the world’s principal regional crises, underscoring the urgent need for the international community to have a more prominent profile in order to move more quickly toward a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, with Assad stepping down, and avoid the risk of regional destabilisation and its critical humanitarian consequences.
Biography of Minister Emma Bonino