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Italy wants the broader Mediterranean
area to be a "sea of peace and progress" rather than a cemetery
for people seeking safety and a better life in Europe, Deputy
Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Sunday.
"Rome has always been, and wants to be, a crossroads between
peoples who want to build a new season together," said Tajani at
the opening of the international conference on migration and
development underway in Rome.
"We do not want the Mediterranean to be a cemetery of people
leaving their homes; instead, we want the Mediterranean
extending as far as the Indo-Pacific region to be a sea of peace
and progress," he added.
Migration, said the foreign minister is not the only "big
problem we are facing".
"We have to solve the migration issue at its root, we have to
deal with the big question of climate change, the fight against
terrorism, disease, because often the major traffickers of human
beings are the same people that traffic in arms and drugs," said
Tajani.
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