Openness to international trade, European Union competitiveness, WTO reform, sustainable development, social and gender issues, and small-to-medium-sized firms are crucial themes of Italy's G20 presidency this year as well for the EU, Italy's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The government welcomed the election of a new unified interim Libyan executive on Friday by 75 UN-appointed delegates in Geneva, calling the outcome of the vote "an important step" towards stabilising Italy's war-wracked former colony.
Italy praised the United States' renewal on Wednesday of the New START Treaty with Russia for another five years, calling the treaty "a key instrument" in nuclear arms control.
Foreign undersecretary Ricardo Merlo on Wednesday held talks with Matteo Corradini, who has been appointed Italy's first consul in Britain's northern city of Manchester, the ministry tweeted.
Basic liberties and Coronavirus pandemic's impact on the most vulnerable was the focus of talks on Wednesday between Italy's ambassador to Algeria Giovanni Pugliese and the president of Algeria's national human rights council, Bouzid Lazhari, the embassy tweeted.
Italy has deplored the three-and-a-half-year jail term that a Moscow court handed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday for breaching the terms of a suspended sentence for embezzlement.
Envoy to Libya Giuseppe Buccino on Monday held talks with mayors, academics and local activists from the war-torn country's impoverished southwest Fezzan region as well as representatives of Italy's overseas aid agency, Bari's agronomic institute, association of local councils (Anci) and the Aracpacis NGO.
Italy on Monday deplored Myanmar's military coup against the democratically elected government and the arrest of Nobel peace laureate and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her party over alleged electoral fraud.
Bolstering military cooperation, war-wracked Afghanistan and Libya as well as Afghanistan were the focus of phone talks Friday between Italy's defence secretary Lorenzo Guerini and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin.
Italy's government has blocked weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio stated on Friday. Both Gulf states belong to an Arab coalition that has been bombing war-torn Yemen since 2015 in a deadly bid to defeat Houthi rebels and restore president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's rule.
