On Friday, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella took the stage at the opening ceremony of the 8th Edition of Rome MED - the Mediterranean Dialogues conference in Rome.
Mattarella mentioned “the tragic circumstances" around Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, pointing at food insecurity, greater poverty, and problems with energy resources.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who addressed the delegates on Saturday, said the conflict in Ukraine is a turning point after which a more comprehensive definition of security has to be addressed, adding that Italy is committed to promoting cooperation with all countries of the broader Mediterranean “in a frank but articulated way both on a bilateral level and at the EU and NATO level.”
Meloni, who took office in October of this year, was a vocal supporter of Kiev and an opponent of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine during her election campaign, as well as after becoming Italy’s prime minister.
Fabrisi Vielmini, who is a research fellow at Vision and Global Trends - International Institute for Global Analyses, is certain that with Meloni in office, Italy’s Euro-Atlantic affiliation will not change.
“They are trying to make some difference comparing with the previous government, but, basically, I do not expect that they can make any move forward. I think it will be only the rhetoric, but the foreign policy of Italy, unfortunately, is defined by its servitude to the Atlantic and European institutions, so basically there is no room for maneuver for Italy to change anything,” Vielmini said.
But despite anti-Russian speeches on the stage of the Mediterranean Dialogues, delegates from nations such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates expressed gratitude to Moscow and praised their nations’ cooperation with Russia on bilateral and regional issues.
Unlike the EU, Jordan has not cut ties with Moscow, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visiting Amman in November to hold talks with King Abdullah II and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi.
Some Jordanian royals, such as Prince Hassan bin Talal, who attended the Rome conference, pointed at hypocrisy in regards to the issue of Ukrainian refugees versus Syrian displaced persons in his country.
Zaid Eyadat, who is the director of the Jordanian Center for Strategic Studies and a delegate at the Rome MED, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the conference that his nation is grateful to Moscow for keeping Jordan’s borders secure:
“It was Russia actually who saved Jordan's border back in 2016 and 2017. The 70 kilometer agreement between Jordan, Syria, Iran, it was totally led by the Russians. So Russia's presence in the region, and in Syria in particular, has been very good news for Jordan in terms of keeping stability and security in the northern border.”
The United Arab Emirates is another nation which did not follow into Washington and Brussels’ footsteps when it comes to imposing anti-Russian economic sanctions.
When asked why the UAE has remained independent on the sanctions’ issue, President and founder of the Emirates Policy Center Dr. Ebtesam Al-Ketbi , who also attended this year’s Rome conference, said that her country has been putting its own interests first and was focused on the economy rather than on politics:
“We have a good relationship with Russia. Russia is one of our strategic partners, and we have military cooperation, we have economic cooperation, so why should we take other people's position? In fact, we should use this good relationship for mediation to reach a peaceful solution between the two parties," Dr. Al-Ketbi said.
The eighth edition of the Mediterranean Dialogues conference, which is organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in cooperation with the Institute for International and Political Studies, was held in the Italian capital on December 2-3 under the slogan “Weathering the storm: interdependence, resilience and cooperation.” The event, which is considered the main platform of Italy’s public diplomacy, was attended by more than 1,000 delegates from 50 nations, including EU countries, as well as nations of the Middle East and North Africa. The Russian delegation did not attend this year’s conference.