Italy’s Call for Multilateralism and Role within the UN: President Mattarella Addresses General Assembly

The basic principles of the Republican Constitution and those of the United Nations Charter “correspond” and share the same “objectives”. Head of State Sergio Mattarella recalled the birth of the Republic to emphasize Italy’s call for multilateralism and its role within the UN. «The multilateral objective has been the main pillar of our foreign policy», said the President of the Republic in the speech given in front of the General Assembly of the Glass Palace, entitled ‘Italy , the United Nations and multilateral to face the common challenges. Multilateralism is what “promotes Italy’s place in the world” and which “naturally finds expression also in other contexts”, from the European Union to NATO, the G7, the G20 and other international organizations. And, Mattarella recalled, “in all these areas, Italy is working for dialogue”. However, against violations of the principles contained in the UN Charter, Italy knows how to take a stand, as in the conflict in Ukraine. “Russia has accepted the great historical responsibility of bringing the war back to the heart of the European continent”, said the president, recalling that Moscow cannot imagine “breaking without control- bonds” sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of another country. Italy is “definitely committed” to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, as long as it is “not a solution that rewards the aggressor and which kills the attacked”.

In his speech, the highlight of the two-day program in New York and his mission to the UN, the head of state also recalled the other major conflict in recent days, the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Two positions were taken by Mattarella, who joined the appeal of the secretary general Antonio Guterres “to avoid military operations in Rafah because of the extraordinary consequences they could have on Palestinian civilians”. The other reference was on the role of UNRWA, the UN agency for the Palestinians, accused by Israel of being imported by Hamas and to which the United States, but also Italy, has stopped funding. “The necessary action must be considered ”made by the organization and “as a result the importance of continuing to fund it,” said Mattarella, stressing then that “even “the hardest and most severe conflict cannot allow the rules of humanitarian law be broken. ». For the head of state, the only solution to the Middle East conflict is still a “two-state” solution, with “definitive recognition of Israel and its security by the states of the region”. Finally, the subject of the reform of the UN Security Council, with the proposal of Italy and the united countries with the acronym ‘Union for Consensus’, whose objective is “inclusion”, for “better representation” the Council. “The UN institutions were designed on the relationships that came out of the Second World War, on war”, said the head of state, “it is time to model them on peace”.