• Mike Pompeo in Rome: Italy a key NATO ally and reliable partner
  • Mike Pompeo is in Rome: four-day visit to Italy. Received from Mattarella and Conte

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02 October 2019 "Duties worry us a lot. Italian companies need certainty". Thus the Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio during the joint press conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Villa Madama, in Rome. And in this regard he recalled: "We will defend our businesses, the made in Italy, our excellences. We will not make discounts, we will put our strength to increase the capacity to export and not to reduce exports". Pompeo stressed that "Italy is a sovereign country" but warned that "China has a predatory approach to trade, investment and is therefore a common threat" for our countries.

"We are allies of the United States and with them we share the concerns about certain strategic infrastructures, such as 5G - Di Maio said in turn - I hope that in the future we can also strengthen the agreements between Italy and the United States to secure the our strategic infrastructures. We have no intention of participating in operations for commercial agreements that could undermine Italy's sovereignty ".

"Then addressing the thorny issue of Libya - another topic at the center of the talks - he reiterated" the important role of the US ". He stressed that" it is necessary to work together for the ceasefire ". Pompeo has fully agreed on this line : "The solution can only be political and we will work to convince all our partners of this."

As for the escalation of tensions with Iran "it is agreed that the solution from the Italian point of view must favor a de-escalation, which does not mean however being neutral in a situation that generates tensions" pointed out the Italian foreign minister . The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, also thanked Italy for sanctions against Russia, "until the situation changes".

After the print point, the two will entertain for a breakfast. The program of the American Secretary of State will continue in the afternoon with a visit to the Colosseum and then to the Villa Borghese Museum. Then at 5.30 pm there will be a meeting with the employees of the three US diplomatic offices in Rome and their families. Tomorrow, the third and final day of the visit to Italy, the head of US diplomacy will be in Pacentro, a town in Abruzzo where part of the family of the Italian-American secretary of state came from.

Ucrainagate. Pompeo: "We will answer but we do not tolerate intimidation"
"The questions asked of us profoundly violate the separation of powers. We will respond to our constitutional obligation but so that they are in line with the American system and we will not tolerate intimidation." Pompeo said in a press conference with Di Maio at Villa Madama. Thus Pompeo commented on the request for information made to the State Department for the so-called 'Ukrainian agate'.