Welcome message

In assuming my duties as Italian Ambassador to this beautiful country, I would like to extend a warm greeting to the friendly people of Zambia and to the hardworking Italian community resident here, whilst recalling the traditionally rich friendship and cooperation between Rome and Lusaka. Friendship and cooperation which started soon after independence, leading to the implementation of numerous projects and to the realization of important infrastructures, which laid the foundations for the ensuing growth process. Conscious of what we were able to achieve in the past, we must now all strive in order to further develop and strengthen these relations, bearing in mind that these no longer move within a strictly bilateral frame, but in a context in which multilateral cooperation is now fundamental.  Reality in the future will be, more and more, one of cooperation between integrated regional groupings and, in this new and dynamic reality, relations between EU and Africa are bound to intensify and become closer. We find ourselves in a world which is undergoing a fast transformation and Africa is increasingly more involved in the general process of readjustment of the international geo-political realities, with consequent profound changes. We must be aware of the great opportunities that can thus arise and therefore be ready to grasp and use them. Even Italy is deeply touched by these processes and this poses a challenge that requires for us to reinvent our role in the world, together with our European partners. The numerous Italian communities worldwide are called upon to give an essential contribution to this end, thanks to the extraordinary capabilities shown to the whole world of adapting to the most varied and difficult situations. In this framework, I am confident that the Italian community in Zambia will rise to the occasion and I fully rely on its helpful support in the realization of what will be the central mission which I have been called upon to do here, i.e. the further development and strengthening of bilateral relations between Italy and Zambia, in the context of the wider reality of the globalized world, to the benefit of both our countries.

Giovanni CERUTI

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