Frattini-Clinton Talks: the G8 and Global Security Challenges
28/02/09
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Friday 27 February. The visit was not just the first bilateral meeting between the two countries' diplomatic chiefs since the new US Administration took office; it was also very much part of the round of talks that Italy is holding right now in its capacity as G8 president for 2009, ahead of the July Summit on La Maddalena.
The purpose of Minister Frattini's visit was to explore with his US counterpart all of the issues on the table that fall within the context of cooperation between Italy and the United States. The talks addressed all of the main issues currently on the international agenda, particularly Afghanistan in relation to the Italian G8 presidency's priorities, and other crucial topics such as Iran, the situation in the Middle East, ties with Russia and the Balkans.
The agenda for the talks centred on the Italian G8 Presidency’s topics, and on global security challenges in particular: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, organised crime and support for peacekeeping and peace building work.
The talks went into particular depth with regard to the international community’s commitment to the stabilisation of the Afghanistan-Pakistan area, with an eye to the ministerial meeting to be held in Trieste in late June and the outreach initiative that the Italian G8 Presidency intends to organise on that occasion.
