Romania's Foreign Affairs minister visits Italy

Luni, 23 februarie 2009, 11:20 English | Top News

Romania's Foreign Affairs minister Cristian Diaconescu will visit Italy on Monday, at the invitation of his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini. The agenda includes talks on the situation of the Romanian community in Rome and the development of better bilateral relations between the two countries. Diaconescu declared that he planned to support Italian authorities to counter felonies and in the same time to protect the rights and dignity of all Romanians living in Italy.

Diaconescu underlined that the recent incidents involving Romanians in Italy were just isolated and individual events. He declared that they should be punished accordingly by the law and that the rest of the Romanians in Italy should not be trashed.

Other issues on the agenda include aspects related to the economic and financial crisis, the energy file, Western Balkans, Eastern neighborhood and the security problems. The minister will also meet a series of Italian MPs.

His visit to Italy comes after diplomatic ties between Romania and Italy became tense as the Italian press has been covering aggressively the acts of violence committed by Romanian individuals in the country. The extreme right movement, Forza Nouva, organized a protest against Romanian immigrants in 100 Italian cities on Saturday.