Italy-Greece Summit, Meloni: 'We await a Russian response on the ceasefire, Rome and Athens close to Kiev until the end'

"We are waiting for a clear Russian response to the request for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, which Ukraine has accepted." This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in statements to the press together with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at the end of the Italy-Greece intergovernmental summit. "Ukraine immediately agreed to meet Putin in Istanbul on Thursday, clarifying in a few minutes, compared to a certain propaganda, which of the parties involved in the conflict is certainly in favor of peace and which is once again responsible for the war," the Prime Minister said in the statements. "We are waiting - she added - to see what the Russian response will be" to the request for a ceasefire.

The issue of peace in the Middle East was also addressed: "We continue to work for the end of hostilities, access for humanitarian aid to Gaza, supporting the work that Arab countries are carrying out to outline a regional framework of peace and security that in our opinion must also include the perspective of two States. In this framework I believe that the mission in the region that President Trump is about to undertake is also very important. I think that a decisive impulse could come from the United States". This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in statements to the press together with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at the end of the Italy-Greece intergovernmental summit.

"Italy and Greece share the path of the Western Balkans' accession to Europe, a common commitment that we will reiterate in the coming days on the occasion of the European Political Community summit scheduled in Tirana". This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in statements to the press together with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at the end of the Italy-Greece intergovernmental summit.

"Countries like Italy and Greece were once considered sources of problems, now we offer and promote solutions to achieve goals at a European level". This was stated by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a press conference with Giorgia Meloni in Rome, speaking of issues such as "energy, immigration, climate crisis", to be "faced together as Mediterranean countries, because we share very deep relationships".

"On migration flows, the Greek government, which has been fighting for years to change EU policy, has finally found" in the Meloni government "the right partner" to face this challenge with "the right approach" . Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this at a press conference with Giorgia Meloni in Rome. The challenge "is to fight irregular flows, fight human traffickers, protect external borders, control who arrives, implement an effective repatriation policy and work on reception policies", he added.

The most important issues on the European and international agenda, starting from the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, the migration dossier and support for the path of reunification of the Western Balkans to Europe were at the center of the bilateral meeting between Meloni and Mitsotakis. The previous intergovernmental summit took place in Corfu in 2017.

The same sources note that economic cooperation between the two states is very broad: Italy is Greece's leading trading partner.

Meloni, agreements with Terma and Fs are fundamental

On the subject of interconnections, "we have an extraordinary advantage that comes from our geographical location in the Mediterranean, which has returned to the center of global dynamics, as the shortest route between the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific: Italy and Greece will continue to work together on some strategic projects such as the Blue Med and Green Med fiber optic cables, and are committed to launching new ones. I am referring in particular to the agreement of approximately 2 billion euros that was just signed by Terna and the Greek electricity transmission network operator to evaluate the electricity interconnection between our nations". This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in statements to the press together with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at the end of the Italy-Greece intergovernmental summit.

"Today we are committed to strengthening our economic cooperation: Italy is Greece's first trading partner, there are many Italian companies that play a leading role in key sectors, from energy to the defense industry, which is certainly one of the areas that we can still strengthen a lot. But I am also thinking of the transport sector in which our companies, as we know, play a crucial role: in this sense I think the agreement between Ferrovie dello Stato and the Greek Ministry of Transport is very very important, which relaunches an important strategic collaboration". This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in statements to the press together with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at the end of the Italy-Greece intergovernmental summit.

Lollobrigida meets Minister Tsiaras

The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Francesco Lollobrigida, met at Masaf with the Minister of Rural Development and Food of the Hellenic Republic, Konstantinos Tsiaras. Masaf announced this in a note, specifying that the bilateral meeting took place in the broader context of the Italy-Greece summit underway today at Villa Pamphili in the presence of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Greek President Kyriakos Mītsotakīs. The meeting confirmed the excellent relations between the Governments of the two Nations and the shared desire to further strengthen cooperation in the agricultural sector. Various topics of common interest were discussed during the bilateral meeting: financing of the CAP, the EU-Mercosur Agreement, management of the impact of weather disasters on agriculture, protection of quality products and geographical indications of Greece and Italy, collaboration in the fishing sector with respect to the activity of third countries in the Mediterranean. Minister Lollobrigida reiterated the importance of developing new cooperation initiatives, with the aim of supporting the growth of the agricultural sector in both countries. At the end of the meeting, the general directors of the respective agricultural research institutions — Maria Chiara Zaganelli for Crea and Panagiotis Mylonas for the Benaki Phytopathological Institute — signed a collaboration agreement for the development of research in the phytosanitary field.