Foreign Secretary meets the new Italian Foreign Minister Alfano in London

Following the meeting, the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

I was delighted to welcome Foreign Minister Alfano to London so soon after his appointment.

It is testament to the great friendship between our two countries that Angelino made it a priority to visit the UK. The cooperation and kinship between the UK and Italy goes back many years and continues to go from strength to strength. The UK’s decision to leave the EU will not change this.

The meeting allowed us to reaffirm our commitment to working closely together on a range of shared priorities such as ensuring stability in Libya, eliminating the threat from Daesh, and tackling the root causes of irregular migration.

We both expressed concern over the humanitarian catastrophe developing in Aleppo. Minister Alfano and I agreed that the fall of Aleppo will not bring the civil war in Syria to an end. Only a negotiated political settlement will bring peace to the people of Syria.

We value Italy as a major international ally and one of our closest partners on a broad range of foreign policy, defence and security issues. I look forward to working with Foreign Minister Alfano as Italy takes its seat on the UN Security Council and chairs the G7 in 2017.

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تصريح من وزير الخارجية البريطاني بوريس جونسون بعد لقائه وزير الخارجية الإيطالي أنجلينو ألفانو، يتفقان فيه على أن سقوط حلب لن ينهي الحرب وأن الحل سياسي.