Tajani's remarks came during a press conference held in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

The discussions also tackled the Palestinian cause, irregular migration, the energy file, developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, food security and the repercussions of the Russian-Ukranian crisis.

In early January, Egypt facilitated a meeting in Cairo between rival Libyan leaders Speaker of the House of Representatives Aguila Saleh and Head of Higher Council of State Khaled Al-Mishri

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the outcomes of the meeting, describing it as an “important step” towards holding presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously as soon as possible.

"Egypt will always remain supportive of the choices of the Libyan people and the role of the Libyan institutions in a way that leads to achieving security, stability, and unity in Libya," the foreign ministry said at the time, adding that Egypt will also support Libya in a way that leads to the exit of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan lands.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, right, shakes hands with his Italian counterpart, Antonio Tajani after a press conference at the foreign ministry headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. AP

Shoukry and Tajani's press conference followed President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's meeting with the Italian minister, where El-Sisi stressed Cairo's keenness in promoting ties with Rome in the near future and enhancing coordination regarding regional challenges in the Mediterranean.

Tajani's indicated that his visit is a clear message of strong historical relations between the two countries and the will of the Italian government to push these relations forward in light of "the pivotal role played by Egypt" as a cornerstone of security and stability in the Middle East and East Mediterranean, a presidential statement said.

Moreover, El-Sisi's meeting with Tajani tackled the issue of the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni – the 28-year-old researcher who was abducted in Cairo in January 2016 – and discussed cooperation in reaching the truth and achieving justice, according to the Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady.

During the press conference, Tajani stated that he asked for more cooperation in Regeni's case, adding that Egypt pledged to eliminate all the difficulties in the file.

Developing relations

El-Sisi affirmed on Sunday that Egypt highly appreciates the deeply rooted ties and fruitful cooperation with Italy, said Rady.

There is mutual desire and interest to develop bilateral relations between the two countries in all fields, Rady confirmed.

"We [Egypt] are keen to strengthen relations with Italy at all levels, and we discussed regional issues and how to benefit jointly from the economic potential,” Shoukry said during the press conference held after.

Italy is Egypt’s first European Union trade and economic partner, declared Shoukry in his conference speech, saying that the trade exchange between the two countries has reached five billion euros, up from three billion euros in 2021, according to previous statements by Egyptian Minister of Industry and Trade Ahmed Samir.

Italy was Egypt’s third largest export market from January-October 2022, with a market share of 6.6 percent, according to Italy’s foreign information markets website.

Furthermore, Italian investment in Egypt hit 1.7 billion euros in April 2022 spread over 1,233 projects in the industrial, agricultural, tourism, services, construction, information technology and financial services sectors, according to Samir.

Irregular migration

We are ready to welcome regular migrants from Egypt, said Tajani during the press conference, without disclosing how many visas could be granted.

His remarks came two days after a similar statement during his visit to Tunisia in which he said: "Rome wants to cooperate with Tunis to reduce irregular migration and boost regular migration."

"The big issue on migration is not only the security aspect, it is important to address the issue at its root cause. Together with security measures we must work toward policies that help to counter poverty, terrorism, climate change, and diseases," AFP quoted Tajani as saying on 20 January.

"We are working to offer a quota for the countries… if they take back their irregular migrants they can send more regular migrants," the Italian top diplomat said at the time.

Egypt has stepped up its efforts since 2016 to deal with irregular migration, when President El-Sisi launched the country’s first national strategy to combat irregular migration and ratified Law 82/2016 that set out penalties criminalising all forms of migrant smuggling.

El-Sisi affirmed then that Egypt would not be a transit point for illegal migrants seeking to reach Europe.

On 7 January, Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Egypt Christian Berger noted that Egyptian-EU cooperation on migration stands at 111 million euros covering 34 projects.

He also lauded the positive implementation of a 2017 agreement, worth 60 million euros, that aimed to improve Egypt's migration management, solve the causes of irregular migration and to support those communities that host migrants and refugees.

Natural gas

Sunday's discussions also tackled cooperation in the energy sector, especially the natural gas file in the context of Egypt's strategic cooperation with Italian energy company Eni, according to the presidential statement.

A week ago, President El-Sisi reviewed with Italian Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi the company’s plans for the exploration and production of gas in Egypt amid the country’s plans to become a regional energy hub.

Following his meeting with Descalzi, El-Sisi directed the government to expand exploration and production in coordination with Eni, aiming to leverage Egypt’s natural resources and to continue the fruitful cooperation between Egypt and the Italian company.

The meeting comes one day after Eni’s announcement that it had made a “significant” gas discovery at the Nargis-1 exploration well in the Nargis Offshore Area Concession in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Eni, which has been operating in Egypt since 1954, discovered the Zohr gas field in 2015 that allowed Egyptian self-sufficiency in 2018. They have also been awarded exploration rights in North Rafah, North El-Fayrouz, Northeast El-Arish, Tiba and Bellatrix-Seti East.

Principles of tolerance

Tajani also lauded what he called Egypt’s efforts under El-Sisi in spreading principles of tolerance and freedom of worship in the context of discussing efforts to combat terrorism and extremist ideology.