Italy convinced supporter of multilateralism - Meloni to UN

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 23 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Monday said Italy supports multilateralism, speaking at the Summit of the Future as part of the UN General Assembly.
    "We are experiencing a time of crisis, however crises always hide a great opportunity.
    "After all the word crisis comes from Greek" and means "choice, decision: crises force us to question ourselves, take a position, don't allow to falter", she explained.
    "No state can govern the crises of our time, for this reason Italy is a convinced supporter of multilateralism and of its most representative institution which is the UN, in which each voice is heard: the place in which we are called to learn, understand and respect one another", the premier told the UN's Summit of the future.
    Meloni also said in her address that "the challenges history has placed in front of us are numerous and of different shapes: climate change, social and economic inequalities, humanitarian and health crises, transnational crime, armed conflicts, starting with the unacceptable Russian war against a sovereign nation like Ukraine, that make international security increasingly precarious.
    "Faced with such a complex scenario we have no other choice but to act", she noted.
    Addressing the Summit of the Future, Meloni also highlighted Italy's position on a reform of the UN Security Council, noting that it must abide by the principles of equality, democracy and representativity, addressing the Summit of the Future as part of the UN General Assembly.
    "The reform makes sense if it is made for everybody and not just for some", she said.
    "We are not interested in creating new hierarchies and we don't believe there are first and second class nations.
    "There are nations with their histories, their peculiarities and their citizens who all have the same rights because they are born free and equal as individuals", she noted.
    Meloni went on to say that "we must think about cooperation among nations in a new way.
    "Italy has done it with the Mattei plan, an investment plan conceived to cooperate with African nations through an approach that is neither paternalistic nor charitable nor predatory but based on respect and on the right for each to cooperate equally.
    "It is our recipe to promote the development of a continent that has been too often underestimated, to build its stability and to guarantee a right so far denied to many youths: the right not to have to emigrate", Meloni said in her address. (ANSA).