“Today in St. Petersburg we will sign agreements with Italian companies for over one billion euros”. This was announced on Friday morning by the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, specifying that the agreements will be signed "in compliance with the agreements with the international community and the sanctions framework".
The Premier, during a visit to an Astaldi construction site in the Russian city, defined the issue of sanctions as "reductive: there is a much bigger problem that concerns the relationship between the EU and Russia, between the international community and Russia. We are working to build bridges”.
According to Renzi, who is taking part in the St. Petersburg Forum today, “dialogue is needed, not closure, that opportunities for meeting are needed, not those of distance. And from this point of view I find it important that there is this appointment in St. Petersburg and that Commission President Juncker has come here. And I find it important that we reaffirm the reasons that unite us, which are more than those that divide us. Of course, we are divided by the opinions on Ukraine: we all think that the Minsk agreements must be respected”.
And therefore the issue of sanctions and counter-sanctions “is connected to the respect and implementation of the Minsk agreements – concluded Renzi -. But at the same time we Italians think that all opportunities for dialogue must be seized: we have been doing this for some time, we have been doing it with Libya, we are doing it with Syria, for the fight against terrorism, for the affirmation of cultural principles. I chose to start the visit from the Hermitage to remember that this is the first terrain that unites us: two great cultural superpowers”.
