- ROMA, 18 GEN - Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi arrived in Tunis for a visit focusing on bilateral cooperation and migration to Italy on Wednesday.
    The visit is "part of a process for the strengthening of bilateral relations and aims to confirm, through a holistic approach, Italy's constant support for Tunisia, especially at this delicate moment in its recent history," said Tajani in an interview with the La Presse de Tunisie newspaper under the title "We Must Do More, Together".
    "It is undeniable that the immigration issue holds a central role in overall relations" between the two countries, the minister and deputy prime minister said in illustrating relevant figures: "32,000 irregular migrants including 18,000 Tunisian nationals arrived in Italy in 2022. In the first two weeks of this year, over 1,700 people landed in an illegal manner on Italian coasts," he added, stressing that it is thus necessary to "increase cooperation".
    "I am thinking in particular about countering irregular departures through more substantial and broader border control, with the creation of a mechanism that will make it possible to increase the number of repatriations from Italy." Italy is always ready to " support the efforts" of Tunisia in this field, "as shown by the 47 million euros from the Italian foreign ministry in the past few years".
    At the level of trade, "this year once again Italy is the top trade partner of Tunisia with a 14.3% market share. This extraordinary result is due to the over 900 Italian businesses that are operating stably in Tunisia in different sectors," Tajani said, announcing that a business forum will be held in 2023 to "attract Italian investment to the country on the basis of shared interests, including in light of the needs of the Tunisian market".