foreign ministry

The foreign ministry is following the case of an Italian woman trapped in India after she travelled there to adopt a toddler and tested positive for Coronavirus.

Italy's foreign ministry on Monday deplored Russia's expulsion of an Italian diplomat, calling the move "unfounded and unjust" retaliation after two Russian officials were ordered to leave last month amid a spying scandal.

The foreign ministry summoned the Russian envoy, Sergey Razov, on Wednesday after a Russian embassy official was allegedly caught paying an Italian Navy captain for classified documents.

Italy is working to bring home a four-year-old girl from the southern town of Teggiano whose mother took her to Russia in 2018 and it is "closely following" the case, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio stated on Thursday.

The foreign ministry on Thursday launched a website to showcase Italian culture and language around the word and bring it to new audiences amid strong demand, the ministry said in a statement.

Armando Barucco is Italy's new ambassador to Morocco, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Russia's expulsion of three European diplomats it accuses of taking part in protests against jailed opposition politician and Kremlin critic Alexi Navalny is of "grave concern", Italy's foreign ministry tweeted Friday.

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.

An Italian embassy armoured vehicle was hit by an IED in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Monday but there were no victims - either Italian or other nationalities - in the blast, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Egyptian prosecutors' ending of their investigation into the 2016 slaying of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni is "unacceptable", Italy's foreign ministry stated on Wednesday, pledging to solve the case.

The Italian government has helped the United Nations children's fund provide around 1,000 pre-paid cards to displaced families in conflict-ravaged Libya, UNICEF tweeted on Tuesday.

The revised and updated version of guidelines for parents of children who are victims of international abductions is now available on the Italian foreign ministry website, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The foreign ministry has seta aside six million euros to help Italy's restaurant and catering businesses around the world recover from the Coronavirus pandemic, a senior ministry official said on Friday.

The Italian government was told of slain Cambridge PhD student Giulio Regeni's disappearance "from the first hours" after he vanished in Cairo in January, 2016, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

In response to the humanitarian emergency caused by the past six weeks of hostilities in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and at the instigation of deputy foreign minister Emanuela Del Re, Italy has has contributed 500,000 euros to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

President Sergio Mattarella accepted the nomination of Nosipho Nausca Jean Ngcaba as South Africa's new ambassador to Italy, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Italian government on Monday urged citizens not to travel abroad unless strictly necessary, as a new wave of COVID-19 infections continues to spread across Europe and the United States.

Fishermen detained off the eastern port city of Benghazi have been in contact with Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and are "in constant touch" with his staff, the owner of one of two seized fishing boats told Adnkronos on Wednesday.

Over 580 Italian citizens returned home aboard flights on Wednesday from Morocco, Oman, Kenya and Niger, bringing to some 107,000 the total number of Italians repatriated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foreign ministry said in a statement.