Collaboration between the United States, Europe and Italy to promote stability in the Mediterranean was the focus of the speech by the Italian Ambassador to the U.S. Mariangela Zappia at the opening of the event “Tracing (in)stability, challenges and transformations in North Africa”. The Conference was organized by the Atlantic Council and Milan’s Institute for International Policy Studies (ISPI) in advance of the MED Dialogues 2021 to be held soon in Rome.
“Promoting stability and cooperation in the Mediterranean has long been a key priority of Italy’s foreign policy,” highlighted the Ambassador. “In particular” the Ambassador continued “we look at the Mediterranean as a region where we can further foster the already excellent US-EU and US-Italian cooperation to support security, institutional stability, socio-economic equality and prosperity and to ensure the respect of human rights”. To this end, Ambassador Zappia also recalled that in December Italy will host the much anticipated sixth edition of “MED Dialogues”, the main international event on the Mediterranean and which aims to promote a “positive agenda” for the region. Furthermore, and in light of the renewed US commitment to Libya, the Ambassador expressed the hope for an even stronger Italy-US collaboration in the area, starting with the upcoming Conference on Libya in Paris that Italy will co-chair with France, Germany and the United Nations.
The event, which looked at challenges and prospects for North African countries, was organized in conjunction of the presentation of the Atlantic Council report “North Africa 2030: What the future holds for the Region”. Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, and Giampiero Massolo, president of ISPI, also delivered remarks. Karen Sasahara, DAS for North Africa at the Department of State, was the keynote speaker, and was followed by a panel of academics and experts from think tanks.