President Meloni’s remarks with the President of the Republic of Tajikistan

President Rahmon, it is a real pleasure to meet with you again after the great meeting we had in Rome. My heartfelt thanks for attending this summit; I know this involved a significant sacrifice in your case, as I know you are hosting the United Nations Conference on Glaciers’ Preservation, and, well, it wasn’t very nice of me to take you away from your nation on a day like today, so I truly very much appreciate the fact that you nevertheless wanted to be here.

I believe it is very important that the summit between Italy and the Central Asian republics is being held for the first time at leaders’ level. As you know, Italy was the first country in the European Union to want to organise a permanent format with the republics of Central Asia, and I like to think we paved the way and set a good example, given that a summit was held in April between the European Union and the Central Asian republics, also involving some important commitments. This shows how Italy considers this region, and therefore obviously Tajikistan, to be very important. This region is historically a crossroads, a crossroads between continents, a crossroads between cultures, between East and West, at a time when this is particularly needed. So, thank you.

I also think this can be a historic opportunity to strengthen our cooperation even further. Historically, our cooperation has been excellent, but I think there is the possibility to do even more, and so it is my interest and my intention to particularly boost our economic and trade relations. As you well know, some of Italy’s flagship companies, some of Italy’s largest companies, are already present in Tajikistan, but I think we can do even more to cooperate, also in new areas. Infrastructure is of course one of our main areas of cooperation, but I am also referring to how cooperation on critical raw materials, for example, can also be important at a time like this, as can cooperation in the fight against terrorism, which clearly concerns us all; I know this is of great concern to you and your country, and it also concerns all of us.

So, my sincere thanks for this further opportunity we have to strengthen our cooperation. Thank you for this new meeting, which I am sure will not be the last.