30th UK-Italy Pontignano Forum: Foreign Secretary's keynote speech
The Foreign Secretary outlined his vision for the UK-Italy relationship on support for Ukraine, defence, foreign policy, trade and addressing illegal migration.
Buonasera a tutti.
We meet sadly at the time when Turkey and north Syria are responding to a series of huge earthquakes that have so far claimed over 10,000 lives and left many thousand homeless. I know Italy and the United Kingdom have expert teams on the ground, demonstrating our work together to respond with help and common humanity to this appalling situation.
But as the ambassador just said, 3 members of the British cabinet are in Rome today. And we are here with one overarching purpose: to demonstrate Britain’s commitment to Italy and to take our bilateral relationship to a new, higher level. Because, as my colleague, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani puts it, we are at a turning point in our relationship.
And this is a world that we must face together. Because galvanised by the war in Ukraine, we have, I am pleased to say, already started to do just that.
But we can invest even further in our relationship. And I will say more about that in a moment.
I want to begin, however, with a thank you.
A thank you to the Pontignano conference and to our chair today, Lord Willetts, for advocating the strongest possible relationship between our 2 countries. And I hope that we can use this special 30th anniversary to launch a new era in British-Italian cooperation.
Now, the ties between Britain and Italy go back a very long way. Just a few metres from here in the garden of this residence runs a Roman aqueduct.
The construction was begun early in the reign of Emperor Claudius, who in his spare time, when not building major Roman infrastructure, was invading Britain.
And it was nearing completion in AD61 under the then-Emperor Nero. Just as a particular feisty young woman from my part of Britain, from East Anglia, was launching a rebellion and Queen Boudica was attacking the Roman garrisons in East Anglia in and around Essex, including, of course, Colchester.
And after her defeat, it was decided to build a fortified settlement. And after a number of name changes, that settlement is now Braintree, the main town in my constituency.
So I am very glad to be here, although I suspect Boudica might have been less enthusiastic taking part in this bilateral conference.
But much more recently, British forces played a central role in the liberation of this country.
And as we approach the 80th anniversary of the landings in Sicily this summer and at Anzio or the Battle of Monte Cassino next year, I want to tell you how touched I am by the regard paid by Italians to commemorating our fallen across the length and breadth of this country.
Today our ties are modern. They are strong and they are vibrant. Weaving a rich tapestry between our countries and our people. Born of one simple fact: we Brits and Italians rather like each other. And wherever you look, you can see evidence of that.
And you can see those ties in the here and now, whether it be through fashion, or culture, or cooking or sport. Indeed, legend has it that football was imported to Italy by a British expat living in Genoa. Cricket, however, has still yet to make the international transfer. I’d rather like to keep it that way, so at least there’s one sport where we have a fighting chance of beating Italy at.
But I think that it is family ties and the ties of deep friendship between our peoples that count the most. And we are very proud that the UK is home to around 600,000 Italians and the contribution that they make every day to British life and to British economy is something that we should celebrate. Now, over 30,000 Brits call Italy their home and we are very grateful for the warm welcome that you give to them.
And nowhere was our mutual affection summed up better than in Italy’s reaction to the death of our late Queen in September of last year. We will never forget how the President came straight from the airport, from a foreign visit to sign the condolence book here in the residence, or how many Italians queued to sign the condolence book at our embassy. And we thank you deeply for that.
Now, rooted in those strong foundations, we must look to the future. And as we do so, we must equip ourselves to deal with the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be.
Because as we sit here tonight, in the warmth and in the light, tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are sheltering in cellars in the cold, in the dark, wondering what horrors the night or the morning may bring.
In a little over 2 weeks, we will mark with our Ukrainian friends the solemn anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February, a date which, to echo President Roosevelt, will live on in infamy. On that date, everything changed:
- our security as freedom-loving European nations changed because we recognised we had an aggressor in our midst
- the security of our energy supplies changed
- the security of our economies changed
- the security of global food supplies, particularly those to poorer countries, changed
But some things did not change at all:
- the need for allies and democracies to protect each other, the need for strong defence to deter war, the need for common sense to diversify our supply chains and to protect those supply chains
- the need for unity. For friends to come together. And to stick together as allies in times of danger
- and above all, the need to stand up for what we believe in.
To stand up for democracy, for justice, for liberty, for freedom, for the rule of law, and for the international order. Because I know that these are Italian values and these are British values. These are our values, and they deserve to be protected.
Looking ahead, I see 5 areas where the UK and Italy need to work far more closely together.
The first, of course, is on Ukraine and the consequences of Russia’s invasion.
We need to do everything in our power to make sure that Ukraine prevails in this struggle between might and right. A message heard loud and clear in Westminster today when we heard from President Zelenskyy in a personal, powerful speech to parliamentarians in Westminster Hall on his visit to Britain today.
From day 1, Italy’s response to that invasion has been robust on sanctions, on seizing assets, on delivering humanitarian aid, on supplying weapons, on welcoming refugees or making plans to support Ukraine’s rebuilding. Italy has at every stage done the right thing.
And let me pay tribute to Prime Minister Meloni and to Prime Minister Draghi before her.
Mr Tajani said to me in our first phone call, and he was right. He said, you can count on Italy. And I’ve seen that repeatedly, and I can assure you, so have our mutual friends in Ukraine.
And to anybody who harboured doubts about the United Kingdom’s ironclad commitment to European security after our exit from the European Union, every day since Russia invaded, Ukraine has given you your answer. I am proud that our total military assistance last year to Ukraine was second only to the United States of America.
And I am glad he is in the audience here this evening because I would also like to pay tribute to my friend and colleague Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, for having the foresight and confidence to help equip and train the Ukrainians before the most recent invasion in February. And in doing so, perhaps help them defend their capital city in that initial wave of the conflict.
But we must keep up the pressure. Indeed, we must do more, we must do it better and we must do it faster.
The second area where we need to work even more closely is on defence and foreign policy.
Now we are already doing a lot together. Typhoon aircraft of the Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force built in the UK and in Italy with Germany and Spain are patrolling the skies on NATO’s northern and eastern flanks.
Italy is commanding NATO’s mission in Kosovo and its mission in Iraq and the EU missions in Somalia and maritime missions in the Mediterranean and the Straits of Hormuz, where nearly 11,000 personnel are deployed in 37 international missions in 25 countries.
Italy is very much doing its bit. You play a vital role in hosting key NATO bases, including the Joint Force Command in Naples, where many British personnel are stationed.
The UK leads NATO’s enhanced forward presence in Estonia while Italian soldiers are guarding NATO’s southeastern flank in Bulgaria.
Just a few weeks ago, our 2 prime ministers and the Prime Minister of Japan announced the launch of our new global combat air programme.
This multi-billion pound programme will be at the heart of our cooperation for many, many years to come. It is the most powerful example of the growing partnership between Britain and Italy. It underscores our determination to work together to keep our nations and our allies safe. Not just here in Europe, but also on the other side of the world.
And that growing partnership must extend to foreign policy, too. As likeminded countries with many similar interests but different regions of geographical expertise, we have much to learn from each other.
We have mutually reinforcing strengths in the Western Balkans, across the Mediterranean to the south and to the east and in Africa as we work to stop the hunger that Putin’s aggression against Ukraine has unleashed. And further afield, as strategic partners, we must address together the dangers posed by Iran and the challenges that go hand-in-hand with the rise of China.
The third area where we must work together is energy security.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may have exposed our vulnerabilities, but it has also galvanised a joint determination to address them. The speed with which Italy has moved to do so, including with Prime Minister Meloni’s recent visit to Algeria, has impressed us all.
As has Prime Minister Meloni’s ambition to turn southern Italy into a regional energy hub. An island surrounded by windy seas and a sun drenched peninsula have obvious advantages when it comes to renewable energy.
If you are unsure which is which, the cold, windy weathers blow on our coasts rather than yours. If at any point you want to swap, talk to me afterwards.
But both our countries will suffer from the effects of climate change.
But here again, our engineering and financial knowhow are mutually reinforcing. So when we work together, we are more than the sum of our parts. Our experience at COP26 and our presidency of COP26 demonstrated that.
Now, the fourth area is in trade and commerce, the lifeblood of our economies.
We are both trading nations and we have traded together for centuries.
However, as the CEO forum highlighted, we want and need to deepen our business and commercial contacts. And I’m delighted that an Exports and Investment agreement, which my Cabinet colleague Kemi Badenoch signed with Minister Tajani this morning, will help us achieve just that.
But once again, good though that is, we must do more.
And lastly, of course, we need to work more closely together to tackle illegal migration, especially by sea. Both our countries have received huge numbers of illegal arrivals by sea: over 105,000 in Italy last year and over 45,000 in the UK.
It is an enormous challenge: humanitarian, social, criminal, political. And our voters rightly demand that we get on top of it.
And indeed we must. Italy’s government, more than any other, I think, shares our sense of urgency on the need to address illegal migration. You have years of experience dealing with these issues across the Mediterranean and before that across the Adriatic Sea as well. One of the main departure countries, Libya, is a country that you know well.
So let us work more closely together and learn from each other on this and on things more broadly. We are, of course, starting that work with Home Office officials meeting their Italian colleagues in London today.
So on Ukraine, defence, foreign policy, on trade, on dealing with illegal migrations, there is a lot of work to do and it is a big agenda.
This is indeed, as Minister Tajani says, a turning point in our relations. A time for ambition. A time for opportunity. And we should seize that opportunity.
We both have new young prime ministers, fresh young leaders with energy and dynamism and enthusiasm. Leaders who believe in the nation state, who are committed to working with allies and partners, leaders who believe in freedom and a need to defend it. Leaders inspired by the example of Margaret Thatcher and the ideas of Robert Scruton.
We look forward very much to welcoming Prime Minister Meloni to London and also to Italy’s presidency of the G7 next year, when you can expect to see even more of us visiting your great country with even greater frequency.
So it is time to put this burgeoning relationship between the UK and Italy onto a new, strong footing to cement this renewed alliance between London and Rome. And I hope that we can swiftly conclude the work on our Bilateral Cooperation Agreement to provide an enduring framework for our cooperation in years to come.
It’s time to make a leap, as Minister Tajani put it, to this conference organised by the Italian Embassy for the British media in Venice 10 days ago, in the quality of our relationship.
That is what I want. That is what the UK wants. That is what our Italian friends want.
My Italian, is poor and limited, but my message is heartfelt.
Andiamo avanti. Insieme. Grazie.