(Adnkronos) – A group of young Palestinian diplomats who undertook training in Rome and the northern city of Turin on Friday attended the closing and graduation ceremony at the foreign ministry for the ‘Diplomacy for Development’ programme which reinforced their skills in areas from economic diplomacy to negotiation, mediation and international cooperation.
The 25 Palestinian diplomats serving in the West Bank city of Ramallah and at overseas missions began the training programme on 13 July as part of Italy’s unwavering support for peace in the Middle East and a two-state solution to the long-running Palestinian-Israel conflict, said a foreign ministry statement.
The training covered economic diplomacy, negotiation, mediation, communication and international cooperation and included in-depth sessions on the workings of European and multilateral institutions, on international law, and meetings with Italian and international institutional representatives, the statement said.
Friday’s closing ceremony was presided over by the foreign ministry’s deputy secretary-general and director-general for political affairs, Cecilia Piccioni. Italy’s special envoy for Gaza’s reconstruction, Bruno Archi, the Palestinian ambassador Mona Abuamara and the director of the UN International Labour Organisation’s International Training Centre, Christophe Perrin also addressed the ceremony.
ITC-ILO in Turin organised the training programme for the Palestinian diplomats together with the foreign ministry, the statement noted.
“Italy thus reaffirms its commitment to strengthening Palestinian institutional capacities and to the education of the younger generations, on whom the region’s future and every prospect of lasting peace depends,” the statement ended.
