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Top Italian diplomat hopes papal peace envoy’s visit to Russia will play positive role

"We believe that the door of diplomacy should always stay open," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said

ROME, June 28. /TASS/. Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday that he hopes that the visit by papal peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to Moscow will "play a positive role."

"We are closely watching all peace initiatives. The Holy See’s initiative is especially authoritative. Pope Francis’ envoy has already visited Kiev and now he has left for Moscow. We hope that common sense will win the upper hand in the long run," the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying. "We believe that the door of diplomacy should always stay open."

"I hope that [the visit] will play a positive role, like China, Turkey and all countries seeking peace, but, I will repeat, I hope we will be able to reach a just peace," he said.

The press service of the Holy See reported on Tuesday that Zuppi will visit Moscow on June 28-29. It stated that the main goal of the visit is to make a humanitarian contribution to the search for "a way out of the current tragic situation in order to achieve a just peace." According to a number of mass media, the cardinal arrive in Moscow on Tuesday evening.

Zuppi, President of the Italian Bishops' Conference and Archbishop of Bologna, visited Kiev in early June to meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and religious figures. On June 15-18, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, held a series of meetings at the Vatican, including with Pope Francis. Sources in the Russian Orthodox Church say that a meeting between Zuppi and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is possible "if such a desire is expressed and the schedule of the Russian Orthodox Church head allows it." Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin also previously did not rule out that such a meeting might take place.

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