Italy: Gentiloni says Italy will use G7 presidency to improve ties with Russia

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• published: 29 Dec 2016
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Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni held an end-of-year press conference at the Palazzo Chigi in Rome, Thursday. Italy's upcoming G7 presidency, relations with Russia, and safety issues linked to terror threats, were among the topics he commented on during the conference. Paolo Gentiloni, Italian Prime Minister (Italian): "[Italy] will try to use its G7 presidency to contribute to different relations with Russia. Italy can play a role in this game. It is not about giving up on some principles; it is about lifting, in case they're there, ideas that return to ideological systems and frames that are typical of the Cold War, and that have no meaning in the actual [political] situation." Paolo Gentiloni, Italian Prime Minister (Italian): "On one hand, Italy has an exposed geopolitical position: we are in the centre of the Mediterranean [Sea], which is in this moment one of the most dangerous critical areas of the world. On the other hand, [Italy is] a country that has managed to reach less dramatic coexistence levels between different communities, [especially] in comparison with other countries. Italy must anyway keep its guard up because we know that threats can come also from the outside, and there have been cases where such thing occurred, for instance the Tunisian responsible for the [Berlin] Christmas market massacre - he came to Italy in the first months of 2011 and underwent a following radicalisation process. However we must be careful: in the majority of cases, the radicalisation happens in [our countries] in our prisons, in our neighbourhoods. This has been at the root of many terror attacks that have struck European countries in the last year, year and a half. So, there are no countries that are not at risk. There are countries that might engage, on one hand, on the fields of apparatus, prevention and services, and, on the other hand, on the field of cohesion, reception. I believe that the government has to move forward on this track in the next weeks and months, because we have to review in our receptive system, make more efficient the repatriation mechanism. There are still many things to do on the migrant-related territory." Video ID: 20161229- 018 Video on Demand: http://www.ruptly.tv Contact: cd@ruptly.tv Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly