D’Alema: “We will be friends of the US but differently from Berlusconi”

BRUSSELS – “We will be friends of the United States. Unlike the Berlusconi government, but friends.” Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said this tonight in Brussels about his visit to the American capital tomorrow, where he will meet the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The Foreign Ministry official noted that “a new phase of relations between the European Union and the United States” is underway.

“We are no longer in the climate of unilateralism, but we are in the climate of cooperation”. This is also demonstrated, according to D’Alema, by the collaboration between the US and Europe on the Iranian issue. A dossier in which Italy “was put on the margins for mistakes”.
Italy, reiterated D’Alema, is a country “traditionally a friend of the USA” and “in this new context, we will be friends of the USA”.

June 16, 2006