23/09/2007 - H.E. the Ambassador’s Speech on the occasion of the National Day of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

23/09/2007 - Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to extend to the custodian of the two holy mosques, king abdullah bin abdul aziz, the saudi government and the saudi people the wishes of the italian government, the italian people and my personal ones for the national day of the kingdom.

For any nations this occasion constitutes an opportunity to celebrate the targets achieved; it is also a moment for remembering the past and consider the future. This year the anniversary is particularly singificant because of the coincidence with the holy period of ramadan  (and allow me to express a warm ramadan kareem to our saudi friends in this special occasion).

Saudi arabia and italy have very ancient traditions, culture and history. On the other hand they have young institutions: our republic was established in 1946, while the kingdom, in its present format,  was established in 1932.

The long standing relations between our two people have been gradually intensified and structured through official contacts, treaties, agreements, exchanges in several sectors, economic as well as cultural and social. 2007  has been a special year in this respect: the visits of our prime minister, mr. Romano prodi, and that of our minsiter of foreign affairs, mr. Massimo d’alema, have underlined the high level of consultations between our two countries; we are confident that other important visits will take place before the end of the year.

The 2006 statistics show that italy is the most important eu partner for the kingdom, being the second importer and the third exporter. The first semester of 2007 registered an increase of 45% of our exports: that’s why we are convinced that our yearly performance will be much better than yhat of last year. That’s why we are organizing an important exhibition to be held in riyadh (mid february 2008) to show our regional and sectoral systems of production as well as the quality of our goods, especially in a wide variety of hi-tech sectors.

I sincerely wish, for the benefit of our countries, that these outstanding results in the political and economic field will be accompanied by similar performance in the social and cultural sector. We are very proud of the exhibition “nawafeth – soglie” we were able to organize in riad (19 – 25.5.2007) at the national museum in collaboration with many saudi and italian insitutions, in particular the ministry of culture and the al nahda philantropic society. In that occasion the contacts between saudi and italian female artists were an experience of paramount importance and we hope to multiply this kind of events in saudi arabia as well as in italy.

Mutual in depth knowledge is essential for strenghthening and improving relations, through dialogue and exchange of experience. We are happy to have between 20.000 and 30.000 thousand saudi citizens visiting italy and we hope it will be possible in short time  for italian tourists to better know  saudi arabia with all its wonders: desert, ancient towns, sea, barrier reef and, first of all the hospitality of saudi people.

In the same direction we are confident that in the next few weeks we will be able to finalize a new agreement for allowing saudi researchers and students to attend italian centres of excellence  and universities. We attach a great importance to this sector because it represents the corner stone for stronger and deeper relations in the future. In the ’60 and in the ’70 we already had this wonderful experience and we are committed to renew it, of course taking into account all the new parameters we have today in saudi arabia and italy.

Once again many thanks and best wishes for the national day and a peaceful ramadan.

legals | credits | F.A.Q.