Relations with Russia are good, can get better — Italy's foreign minister
Concerning the resumption of tourism, Di Maio said that Italy "hopes to welcome Russian tourists as soon as the situation permits"
ROME, August 26. /TASS/. Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has described his country's relations with Russia as good and remarked that he saw concrete opportunities for making the bilateral partnership stronger.
"Bilateral relations between Italy and Russia are at a good level, and we see concrete opportunities for making our partnership still stronger," Di Maio told TASS in an interview ahead of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to Italy and the forthcoming talks.
He acknowledged that the European Union's anti-Russian sanctions were having adverse effects on the national economic interests, but at the same time reiterated that Rome would follow the common European policy on the issue of sanctions.
"The decision to impose sanctions [on Russia] was made by the governments of EU countries in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis. We have stated quite clearly all along that sanctions are a means, but not an end, and that they should serve a wider strategy," Di Maio recalled.
"We are perfectly aware of the negative effects of sanctions on our national economic interests, but we stick to the policy that links the lifting of sanctions with the implementation of the Minsk Accords," Di Maio said.
Concerning the resumption of tourism, Di Maio said that Italy "hopes to welcome Russian tourists as soon as the situation permits."
"We believe it is extremely important to keep working — in coordination with other EU member-countries and in accordance with the available epidemiological data — for the gradual resumption of trips to the EU from non-member countries," Di Maio said.
"Even though the pandemic has not been overcome for the time being, the improving epidemiological situation, which is a result of the large-scale vaccination campaign, enables us to look to the future with optimism, while being aware that we should stay on guard to ensure the efforts exerted so far are not in vain," he added.