Italy and Albania are well placed to strengthen their cooperation in the infrastructure sectors and in ones that are crucial to the energy transition, according to foreign minister Luigi Di Maio.
"There exist interesting prospects for cooperation," Di Maio said at media conference with Albanian premier Edi Rama at the foreign ministry in Rome on Wednesday.
Di Maio was speaking after the first meeting of a joint Italy-Albania economic committee that saw "extremely fruitful exchanges", Di Maio said.
"In the next few months, we will aim to put into practice the ideas we discussed, and have agreed a concrete action plan. There are promising prospects for greater cooperation in both these strategic sectors," Di Maio added.
Rama said he was "extremely satisfied" with Wednesday's meeting.
"As early as tomorrow, we will keep working on rail, sea economy, energy infrastructure, agriculture, culture and tourism projects as well as the ecological transition," Rama stated.
"The future will bring us ever-closer," Rama underlined.
Rama earlier met Italy's premier Mario Draghi, who after their talks described his country's ties with Albania as "ancient and strong".
"Our ties are not in discussion and only need to strengthening," Draghi said. He noted Albania's "vast and well integrated community in Italy" and the "many Albanian students studying fruitfully in our universities".
Albania is an official candidate for European Union accession and Italy strongly supports its membership bid.
