G7, Mattarella: old ghosts have reappeared in the world, watch out for the pitfalls of neo-imperialism

"Today we note that the growing process of interdependence fostered by globalisation has abruptly failed, along with the drive towards globally shared values and goals. Ancient ghosts have reappeared and the language of cooperation, and of building rules of international coexistence that respect peoples, is being put to the test, giving way to growing geopolitical tensions, when, unfortunately, not to conflicts". So said President Sergio Mattarella in the toast of the dinner at the G7.

"The ambition of new actors to play a more profiled role," said the Head of State, "questions the capacity of the international community - and in it the G7 - to promote positive processes oriented towards peace and development. For some, it is a matter of proceeding to the realisation, however - often in a hurried manner - of new international arrangements, in the presumption that they will be more advantageous for themselves than those achieved in the decades following the Second World War while, often, they open, instead, spaces to the pitfalls of neo-colonialism if not neo-imperialism".

Mattarella recalled that "on 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation took on the historic responsibility of bringing war back to Europe in a dangerous attempt at neo-imperial revanche that contradicts all the steps forward made on the continent since the Helsinki Conference in 1975. A turning point that one cannot pretend to ignore or underestimate as the history of the 20th century teaches us. By supporting Ukraine's independence, we are defending the general principles of coexistence among nations, on which the freedom, security, and prosperity of our peoples, as well as the development and growing role of those who were then, despite themselves, spectators of history, rests since the Second World War'.

The President of the Republic then addressed the issue of the crisis in the Middle East. "The barbaric attack by Hamas, with the killing of defenceless Israeli citizens and the inhuman kidnapping of hostages, has reopened a wound that continues to be fed by the macabre count of the thousands of Palestinian civilian victims, women and children, who have lost their lives in the more than eight months of conflict. The ongoing negotiations to reach a ceasefire,' he continued, 'must represent a stage on a concrete political path towards a lasting peace, which can only be based on the two-state solution. We need the will to pursue it on the part of all the actors involved, so as not to abandon the dialogue halfway through - as has happened on too many occasions - with the inevitable resumption, over time, of the conflict, with ever greater violence and victims'. President Sergio Mattarella said this during the toast at the G7 dinner.

"The States represented at this table," continued the Head of State, "recognise themselves in the principles of the rule of law, democracy, respect for the rights of the person and international cooperation. Considerations that are anything but taken for granted, if one thinks of the worrying increase in authoritarian impulses in so many parts of the world, with the consequences that follow: compression of the inviolable sphere of the person at the domestic level and aggressive conduct in the international sphere".