German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock is scheduled to travel to Rome on Monday, with the ongoing stand-off between Russia and the West over Ukraine expected to top the agenda.
Around noon (1100 GMT), Baerbock plans to meet with her counterpart Luigi Di Maio in the Italian capital. According to a German Foreign Office spokesperson, in addition to discussing a common European stance towards Moscow, the ministers will discuss bilateral and other European and foreign policy issues.
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Migration policy is also likely to be discussed. In the afternoon, Baerbock and Di Maio plan to hold a joint discussion on ecological restructuring in Europe at the Institute for International Affairs.
The think tank considers itself one of the most important and influential institutes in Italy. Its website says its mission is to deepen awareness of the challenges of European and international politics through independent research, advance debates, and propose solutions.
Di Maio has been Italy’s foreign minister since September 2019. He retained the post even after the change of power in February 2021 and the formation of a new government under the former head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.
Born in southern Italy, he belongs to the populist Five Star Movement (M5S). He was its party leader until the end of January 2020 but resigned from the post after internal disputes.
Baerbock, a Green politician who took office late last year as part of Germany’s new center-left coalition government, first met the 35-year-old in December on the fringes of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in the English city of Liverpool.
Germany took over the presidency of the G7 at the beginning of the year.
