This morning in the Magistral Palace in Rome a memorandum of understanding reinforcing international cooperation for developing third parties has been signed between the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Signing the memorandum were, for Italy, Ambassador Giorgio Marrapodi, since February 2018 Director General for Development Cooperation and, for the Order of Malta, Ambassador Stefano Ronca, Secretary General of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to the Italian Republic.

Ambassador Ronca said that the purpose of the memorandum is to foster joint development cooperation initiatives in favour of third parties by sharing the respective experiences in the cooperation sector. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to his Italian counterpart “for a result that heralds future projects,” because it promotes joint missions in countries considered as priorities as well as the organization of shared training activities.

The Order of Malta’s Italian Relief Corps will be responsible for coordinating the initiatives.

For his part, Ambassador Giorgio Marrapodi stressed “the Order’s significant evolution from a legal standpoint over the last twenty years,” and the expansion of its humanitarian activities, “arriving at today’s signature, important because we can work together in third parties of primary interest for Italy and the Order, creating synergies between subjects of international law who have common visions on common issues.”

The main area of intervention for the cooperation initiatives in third parties will be public health, including that of mothers, infants and minors and anyway health protection for the weaker sections of society.
The agreement has a duration of three years and will be automatically renewed for another three years unless one of the parties agrees otherwise.