It is a first for Italy: four highly experienced ambassadors who create an international consultancy “start-up” to deal with an increasingly fluid and unpredictable world. Francesco Talò, one of the co-founders, talks about it to Adnkronos and also explains what Italy’s role could be on the global stage, from Ukraine to the Far East, from NATO to the Mediterranean. “Today, a full-scale commitment from national and international institutions is needed, in coordination with the private sector. For this reason, experts who know how to interact with all the players in the field can be useful. We represent a connection between these different realities, now that the fixed patterns of the past have been broken,” says Talò, former ambassador to NATO and Israel, and diplomatic advisor to Prime Minister Meloni.
With him in the International strategic network (ISN) are three other companions in adventure with careers spanning over forty years in the field of international relations. Ettore Sequi, former ambassador to Beijing and secretary general of the Farnesina; Giovanni Castellaneta, ambassador to the United States and diplomatic advisor to Berlusconi; Sebastiano Cardi, permanent representative to the United Nations and director general for political affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “It often happens that retired ambassadors collaborate with consulting firms, specialized companies, law firms. But a reality like ours is unprecedented: if we put the offices and countries where we have worked on a globe, we cover a large part of the globe. With us there will also be Gaetano Castellini Curiel, a different and perfectly complementary figure, a business consultant who will work from Milan and act as a link with the business world”, explains Talò.
Isn speaks to Italian companies, public bodies and non-profits that want to move abroad, but also to foreign entities that are looking at Italy. “In the world, risks are growing but so are opportunities for those who know how to seize them, and today Italy is seen as a country in which to invest,” adds the former diplomat. “The phase of interest is not only temporary and linked to the G7, but medium-long term. Political stability, economic resilience despite everything, great ability to export. And then our geopolitical position, which is extremely important. Being at the center of the Mediterranean is crucial if we consider supply chains, maritime trade, energy and data connections, the centrality of our ports. Strategic reasoning and targeted operations can be made, depending on the occasion.”
“There are no more theaters, or even mega-theaters of conflict and threat,” Talò reasons, in the sense that no military or economic event of a certain importance can be limited to a regional level, and therefore “what happens in the Euro-Atlantic context, such as the war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine, has global consequences, and the same goes for the Indo-Pacific, which impacts our balances. It is important that Italy continues with a very strong and active commitment on all fronts, and in this regard I find the mission of the aircraft carrier Cavour in Asia extremely interesting, as well as the F-35 exercise in Australia. An Italy that makes itself seen and heard in the world has very concrete repercussions not only on our international ‘standing’ but on our economic growth: it means jobs for the defense industry and for the sector that revolves around it. More security means more vitality for our production. Just think of the Navy’s activity in the Red Sea to protect commercial traffic”.
Finally, we asked Ambassador Talò, who represented Italy at NATO, for his opinion on the new Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister for 13 years. “To judge his new role, we need to wait for his first moves, but I can say that I dealt with him when I was diplomatic advisor to the Prime Minister. At the European Council in Brussels, we were in close quarters, and you know that meetings often go on for a long time, until late at night, and on those occasions I found him to be an affable man, politically open and skilled at negotiating. With him, Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, we were in Tunisia to sign the agreement on migrants and he was attentive and sensitive to Italian needs. He is someone who knows how to connect even distant points, a fundamental characteristic for leading the Atlantic Alliance. With whoever wins the American elections, Rutte will be able to establish a fruitful relationship”. (by Giorgio Rutelli)
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