Foreign Minister Winston Peters has concluded a constructive visit to Italy, marking 75 years of diplomatic relations.

Mr Peters and Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani met in Rome overnight and confirmed the strength of the bilateral relationship that New Zealand and Italy share.

“New Zealand and Italy are long-standing partners,” Mr Peters says. “We have agreed to work more closely together, in order to expand strategic and trade and economic relations.

“We work closely in Antarctica and have shared interests in supporting the rules-based international order and multilateral system, including cooperation on human rights and UN reform,” Mr Peters says.

Mr Peters signed an arts, science and sport arrangement with Minister Tajani, which supports cooperation between New Zealand and Italy in these areas.

While in Rome, Mr Peters also met:

• a range of Italian businesses with investment and commercial interests in New Zealand; and
• Elizabeth Dibble, the Director-General of the Multinational Forces and Observers (MFO), the international peace monitoring organisation in the Sinai which New Zealand has supported since its inception in 1982.

Mr Peters now travels to Jakarta, to attend the annual Indonesia-New Zealand Joint Ministerial Commission meeting.

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