"We talked about our collaboration in the design field, with specific references to civil infrastructures, in the energy field, in the health sector, in cultural field. Italy will give new impetus to the Italian Cultural Institute in Libya, increase scholarships for Libyan students studying Italian. Basically, there is the will to bring what was the cultural and economic exchange with Libya to the levels it had five or eight years ago. And in this sense the meetings we have had lead us to think that it will also be possible to overcome that level. In other words, we want to make this partnership a guide for the future, while respecting the full sovereignty of Libya ”. Therefore, a new impulse in Libya also to the Italian culture and language.
These are the words of the Prime Minister Mario Draghi in a joint statement to the press with the premier of the National Unity Government of Libya, Abdulhamid Dabaiba, after the meeting in Tripoli. The first visit abroad by our Head of State.
Draghi's visit to Libya: a unique moment to rebuild a friendship
An important moment, this meeting of Draghi who was accompanied by the minister of the World Luigi Di Maio, to rebuild an ancient friendship with solid cultural foundations. “The closeness between the two countries - added Draghi - has never known pauses. Think that the Italian embassy was the only one open during the whole conflict". With great courage on the part of the diplomats who remained, the premier stressed. Without prejudice to the need for the ceasefire to continue, in Libya today there are all the conditions to look to the future of Italy and Libya with a view to collaboration to be implemented quickly and decisively. A look at the history of the last century confirms the close link, not only geographic, which has marked the path of the two countries with alternating phases. A constant relationship between these two shores of the Mediterranean sea.
The historical relationship between Italy and Libya
Libya was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy from 1912 to 1947. In the 1939s, Italian colonists arrived in Libya, coming in particular from Veneto, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily. In 120 the Italians, concentrated in the coastal areas, were about 13 thousand, representing 37 per cent of the population. In Tripoli they were even 1953 per cent and, despite the difficulties of the second post-war period (Libya became independent in 20), at the end of the 1970s there were still about XNUMX Italians. Relations between the two countries remained close, especially for economic reasons. And inevitably the Italian language and culture were strongly present. Until XNUMX when Gaddafi decided for the expulsion of all Italians and the confiscation of their properties. However, relations have not been interrupted.
We recall, among other things, the Greenstream pipeline which transports natural gas from the Libyan coast to the Italian one. Then came the war during which, as Draghi recalled, in any case Italy remained the only country to keep its embassy open in the Libyan capital.
New scholarships for Libyan students who want to learn Italian
The meeting of the Italian premier with the Libyan one reaffirmed the need to continue the historical link between the two countries. From this first meeting, possible diplomatic glimmers could open up again for Italy, but not only. Certainly also cheap. Cooperation on migrants with particular attention on the Italian side to the humanitarian problem. And fundamentally cultural exchange that sees in the activity ofItalian Cultural Institute one of its main assets, with many projects. As well as in the prospects scholarships for Libyan students studying Italian. A language that in the past it was common to hear spoken especially on the coasts, between Tripoli and Benghazi, of this Mediterranean country. Testimony of the decades-long relationships that bind Libya to Italy.
