GMA renews RP ties with Italy

President Arroyo renewed the country’s ties with Italy as well as the Philippine commitment to the international fight against terrorism when she met yesterday with the visiting president of the chamber of deputies of the parliament of Italy, Pier Ferdinando Casini.

The top Italian Parliament official was accompanied to the meeting with Mrs. Arroyo by his Filipino counterpart, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., his wife and two other Filipino congressmen.

The President received the delegation at Malacañang’s Music Room where the formal talks were conducted in the presence of Palace reporters.

Through a female interpreter, Casini told Mrs. Arroyo that the Italian Parliament has recently approved the dispatch of 1,000 Italian troops to the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, stressing Italy’s support to the UN-backed international coalition against terrorism.

He said that Italy, along with the rest of the European Union (EU), is behind the UN’s peace efforts in various parts of the world such as the search for a peaceful settlement of Palestine rights with Israel.

But he said, they deplored the latest terrorist suicide bomb attack in Israel which wounded 30 people, including 12 Filipinos.

Mrs. Arroyo said Filipinos realize terrorism strikes anywhere and knows no boundary and that the world cooperate in the war against terrorism.

Casini explained that the Italian government supports both the campaign against terrorism and the war against poverty in many parts of the world to prevent them from becoming breeding grounds of terrorism.

De Venecia noted that Italy gave $25 million in concessional loan facilities, with a grant portion, for agricultural and land reform projects in Mindanao.