Santiago de Chile (EFE).- The President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, stressed the vital importance that fluid dialogue between Latin America and Europe can have for world balance during an official visit to Chile, three weeks before the Union summit European Union and the countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
Matarella was received at the La Moneda Palace by his counterpart, Gabriel Boric, with whom he discussed the world situation. He spoke of future challenges such as the energy transition and the climate emergency. As well as economic ties and collaboration in matters such as human rights.
A crucial summit that will be held between July 17 and 18 in Brussels after eight years of interruption in a changing geostrategic environment. Marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the economic crisis and the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, in addition to the aforementioned climate emergency.
“50 years ago, the coup was experienced in Italy in a very participatory and painful way: the Italians felt involved in what was happening in Chile. So this part of the story was also common. The closeness with Chile, with democracy, was greatly reinforced. This creates a special bond between Italy and Chile”, affirmed the European dignitary after signing two memorandums of understanding on sustainable development and diplomatic exchange.
Dialogue between Latin America and the EU
“Italy intends to collaborate intensively at the scientific level to guarantee a future for the next generations. This happens not only through declarations, but also through precise decisions,” he stressed before insisting that the dialogue between Latin America and the European Union “can be decisive for a global balance that leads to peace and collaboration,” he added.
In this regard, he also described the summit scheduled in Brussels as “decisive not only for the fate of the two continents, but of the world.” The first to be held of this nature since 2015.
Before, the Italian president had met with the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto Van Kleveren, and the Chilean Minister of Defense, Maya Fernández. He toured the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, where he thanked the Chilean people “for having created this place.”
Accompanied by his wife and deeply moved, Mattarella stopped for a long time in front of the platform that provides information on the 1,103 detainees who are still missing. Among those who highlighted Omar Venturelli, a former Chilean priest of Italian origin. He is one of the four disappeared detainees of this nationality after the 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
Mattarella’s tour
Before and in the club where the community of Italian origin congregates in Santiago de Chile, Mattarella warned that the tensions that exist make more current “the need for countries that have a vocation for peace, balance and international collaboration to make them feel what the true path, more just and more suitable for the destiny of the world”.
Mattarella’s official visit to Chile will continue tomorrow with a keynote talk at the University of Chile under the title “Latin America and Europe: two continents united for peace, democracy, development” and a tribute to Lumi Videla, sociology student from the same university and a member of the opposition Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) assassinated by the Pinochet dictatorship in 1974.
After the stay in Chile. He will travel to Asunción on Thursday where he will be received where on Friday he will meet with President Abdo Martínez at the Executive headquarters.