(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 13 - President Sergio Mattarella said on Friday that global crises have increased over the past year, with a reported 56 ongoing conflicts amid a generalized deterioration of security conditions, receiving the diplomatic corps accredited to Italy at the Quirinale palace.
    "Despite hopes for more cooperation and solidarity", Mattarella said the year coming to an end has recorded an increasing number of crises on a global scale.
    "Recent reports have registered as many as 56 ongoing conflicts - the highest number since World War Two - in a generalized context of deterioration of security conditions", said the president.
    Mattarella went on to say that "Italy's support for Kyiv, firm and determined, has the objective of a just peace, based on the principles and values of the Charter of the United Nations - an objective in the background of Italy's commitment to host in Rome, during the month of July next year, the third edition of the International Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine".
    Mattarella went on to note that the ongoing crises could not distract the attention from climate change, calling for an "indispensable acceleration towards a global energy transition", in his speech delivered during the annual meeting with the diplomatic corps ahead of the holidays.
    Speaking about protectionism, the president said "international cooperation finds in economic relations one of its strengths.
    "The claim to be self-sufficient goes against the reality of facts", he added, noting that, "here too, there is a wish to cancel the world's evolution over the past three centuries, invoking themes like national security to justify new forms of protectionism".
    "History taught us that protectionism never brought long-term advantages, sometimes even causing armed conflicts, while free trade - it is the experience developed by the European Union, is a factor of formidable growth". The president went on to say that international dialogue between different groups of countries with their interests were "vehicles of peace", "even more so when they know how to merge between them the future of entire continents - as is the case of the recent agreement between the European Union and Mercusor - vying to safeguard a "common heritage" like biodiversity, food security, the overall state of health of our planet".
    On artificial intelligence, Mattarella called for an "inclusive development from which all populations can benefit".
    "Discoveries and developments in this sector cannot be a private monopoly", he noted.
    Speaking about Europe, Mattarella said it "has to be first of all a project of peace".
    "The search for peace has characterized its genesis and development.
    "The European Union does not represent a threat for anybody,", he also said, stressing however the need to "strengthen a common strategic culture".
    "In this regard, I would like to highlight that a real European defence cannot be postponed anymore.
    "We have the example of NATO, the defensive alliance called to guarantee the security of allied populations, averting the spectre of war".
    "Italy will not cease to offer its contribution for peace and stability in Europe and in the world and the Italian presidency of the G7, in this 2024, had as a key objective the defence of the international system based on rules". (ANSA).