The third meeting of foreign and defence ministers of Russia and Italy in two plus two format
PRESS RELEASE
A joint session of the foreign and defence ministers of Russia and Italy was held in Rome on the 6 August, which was attended by Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shoigu from Russia and Emma Bonino and Mario Mauro from Italy. This was the third meeting in two plus two format, which it was agreed to set up during the sixth round of interstate consultations at summit level on the 3 December 2009 in Rome. The first meeting of this kind was held in Rome on the 20 May 2010, the second in Moscow on the 20 April 2012.
The negotiations conducted in a trustworthy and constructive atmosphere, which is traditional for Russian-Italian dialogue, confirmed the strategic nature of the interaction between Russia and Italy, the mutual disposition towards further progressive development of cooperation in the political, economic, military and technical arenas.
There was an interesting exchange of opinions about the broad agenda, including the problems involved in the development of a political dialogue and military cooperation within the framework of the NATO-Russia Council, and issues of disarmament and non-proliferation. Problems of missile defence in Europe were also discussed.
Special attention was devoted to the situation in Syria, in North Africa, the Middle East peace process, as well as the situation in Afghanistan and the prospects for its development after 2014. An agreement was reached about maintaining a close dialogue between the two countries for the purpose of solving these problems.
On the same day, during separate talks between the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino, some topical issues of Italian-Russian bilateral links, including the schedule of forthcoming contacts at summit and high level were reviewed. As to international topics, a special place was occupied by the prospects of development of the relations between Russia and the EU in light of Italy's presidency of the Council of Europe in the second half of 2014, the reform of the UN Security Council, Iran's Nuclear Programme, as well as interaction within the framework of the G20 and the G8 in the context of the Russian presidency in their current formats in 2013 and 2014, respectively. A decision was made to establish the structure of a Russian-Italian mechanism of consultation aimed at the attainment of specific results in the development of the entire package of relations between Russia and the European Union.
At the end of the negotiations, the President of the Italian Council of Ministers, Enrico Letta, received the foreign and defence ministers of Russia and Italy, who informed him of the results of the third Russian-Italian meeting in two plus two format.
6 August 2013
