Good afternoon everyone, thank you.
I wish to above all thank President Milei for the extremely warm welcome he has given us here in Buenos Aires, which really has made us feel at home. I am very pleased to be here, this is my first time in Argentina and is also my first bilateral visit in Latin America since my Government took office.

This was not a random choice. I chose to come to Buenos Aires because, as President Milei also rightly pointed out, the Italian people and the Argentine people have a fraternal bond.
Our long-standing friendship is nurtured on a daily basis by the presence of the largest Italian community abroad. We are talking about more than a million Italians and approximately 20 million Italian descendants now living in Argentina. The bond uniting our nations has deep roots dating back to even before Italy and Argentina gained their independence as free and sovereign states.

In short, our love for freedom, dear Javier, is something we have always shared. With this visit, I clearly also wanted to reciprocate the special attention that President Milei paid to Italy. It is a pleasure to recall that Rome was the first European capital President Milei chose to visit after being elected.

We met at Palazzo Chigi on 12 February this year, and then we saw each other again at the G7 Leaders’ Summit at the Borgo Egnazia resort in Apulia.
As current Presidency, we wanted Argentina to be among the nations invited to the Outreach session, as we believe the viewpoint of Buenos Aires can play a decisive role in both revitalising the centuries-old relationship between Europe and Latin America, and addressing the major challenges of our time. We have discussed these challenges in-depth over the last few days, first at the G20 Summit where we reaffirmed our common will to work together on all the major international issues, and we have done so also over the last few hours.

During our bilateral meeting, our shared desire to work together was clear, as our views are strongly aligned on many issues: I am thinking of the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East and also the crisis Venezuela is going through. This issue is particularly important to Italy, as indeed it is to Argentina, because also in our case there are very many citizens of Italian origin living in the country, whose name, as you know, is even linked to Italy, and to Venice in particular.

As we have already said, we do not recognise Maduro’s proclaimed victory following the far from transparent elections, and we continue to condemn the regime’s brutal repression which has led to the deaths of dozens of protestors, the arbitrary arrest of thousands of political opponents and the incrimination and exile of the presidential candidate from the democratic opposition.
I believe it is our duty to speak out, and I wish to thank President Milei as he has done so several times. We have expressed this position in all G7 communiqués during our Presidency, we intend to do so even more clearly and together with the European Union we are working for a democratic and peaceful transition in Venezuela, so that the preference expressed by the Venezuelan people for President-elect González Urrutia and their legitimate aspirations for freedom and democracy can finally become a reality.

Going back to our bilateral relations, we agree that the relationship between Italy and Argentina has huge potential to be explored and unleashed. Argentina is Italy’s point of reference in Latin America. With President Milei, we have decided to focus our work on three main areas. 
The first is obviously political collaboration. We have agreed to draw up an Italy-Argentina action plan together for 2025-2030, to identify the main sectors for bilateral cooperation on which to focus our efforts and energy. 

The second area in which we want to revitalise our shared commitment is the fight against organised crime. 
We are determined to combat drug trafficking, corruption, money laundering, infiltration into the economic and social system, and human trafficking. Italy is proud to offer its strong and solid experience, which is also based on the investigation methods developed by the two great Italians Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. These methods have now become the basis for all strategies to fight illegality. Italy is playing a leading role in the European EL PAcCTO 2.0 initiative, in providing technical assistance in the fight against organised crime, and is constantly engaged with the programme named after Falcone-Borsellino themselves, which is one of the flagships of our legal and security diplomacy and is dedicated to training judicial and police officers.

The third area of course regards our economic and trade relations, which we want to revitalise.
In this regard too, there is extraordinary potential for growth, thanks also to the more than 300 Italian companies that operate in this nation, employing more than 16,000 workers and generating a turnover of almost EUR 3 billion. 
From this point of view, we believe the very courageous policies President Milei is pursuing to liberalise the market and support investments can create new opportunities and provide a further incentive to increase Italy’s presence, as we intend to do. We plan to further enrich our collaboration, especially in strategic areas such as energy transition, infrastructure, the procurement of critical raw materials, aviation and space.

President Milei and I are clearly also aligned politically; a political alignment between two leaders who fight to defend the West’s identity and the cornerstones of its civilisation, freedom and equality among people, democratic systems and the sovereignty of nations. There is much more here than just cooperation between nations. There is the awareness that we are living in difficult times and the responsibility that these difficult times demand; in other words, strong ideas and the courage needed to defend them.

Italia y Argentina son Naciones hermanas y aún tienen mucho camino por recorrer juntas y estoy feliz de recorrer este tramo de camino junto a Javier, un hombre valiente, mi amigo, un amigo de Italia. Muchas gracias.
(Italy and Argentina are sister nations and still have a long way to go together. I am glad to be walking this part of the path together with Javier, a brave man, my friend and a friend of Italy. Thank you very much).

[Courtesy translation]