 and the Roman people, and we can say that today the relationship is a little bit better. Our two peoples, Italy and Israel, are examples of modern independence that was reignited from ancient countries, two peoples that inherited the ideas of our ancient ancestors, and two people who did a lot to promote the civilization and developed nations. It's been a great pleasure for us to lead both of these new old countries to new achievements. We both came to our position of prime minister in an unconventional manner and leading unique governments that didn't exist before, not in Italy and not in Israel. We both helped our countries to come back to financial stability, and we are both determined to initiate and be pragmatic for the best and thriving of our peoples. My friend, the Prime Minister died before almost ten years, and you gave a famous speech and revealed your do whatever it takes approach, and us together will do everything we need to strengthen the ties between both countries. I'm happy to announce that the Prime Minister of Italy and myself have agreed to have soon a meeting of both governments after almost ten years that this hasn't happened, and I think this is a very important step. A few years ago, you made a famous speech in which you exposed your approach to do everything we need to do, do whatever it takes, and I will also do everything we need to bring the ties between Italy and Israel to new events. Today I'm honored to announce that we will open a new chapter in our ties and that we agreed to have soon an intergovernmental verdict in Israel and after almost a decade of pause, and we will do it to enjoy the common occasions. One of the main issues that we talked about and will be talking about today is about energy. Needs right now energy, gas, and in Israel we have natural gas in our territorial waters, and those are, that's good news for Israel, Italy, and for Europe. We talked about cooperation so that Israel's natural gas will also be utilized by Europe. They also am looking forward to the day when Lebanon is ready to take advantage of natural gas in its own territorial waters. It's a shame that the leadership in Lebanon, instead of taking advantage of their own gas, is fighting instead in internal fights and external fights, so I suggest for the government of Lebanon to take advantage as soon as possible to improve the economy in Lebanon and build a better future for Lebanon and to start doing something about that. Prime Minister, my friend, I want to thank you for the deep friendship of yours to the Jewish people, your strong stance against anti-Semitism, and your friendship to the State of Israel, and also, you gave some smart political advice from your own personal experience. Together, we are stronger, we are stronger. Thank you. Good morning everyone, thank you dear friend, I am very happy to be here today, thank you President Herzog who I saw yesterday, thank you my dear friend Naftali Bennett for the invitation and the warm welcome. First of all, I just want to say something different, I would like to express my condolences to the Italian government and to the disappearance of a writer greatly loved in Italy, Abra Mieshoa. Then I also want to tell you that this morning's experience was a great emotion, it was to visit the memorial of the Iyad Vashem, his testimony to hatred, indifference, violence and, in particular, importance at this moment. Italy has committed with the utmost determination to contrast anti-Semitism in all its forms and defend the fundamental values of our republic and of the European Union, peace, brotherhood and tolerance. Hello everybody, thank you very much Prime Minister, I'm very happy to be here today and I want to thank warmly President Isaac Herzog who I met yesterday and I want to thank you for this invitation and warm welcome. First of all, I want to say something about something completely different. I want to express the condolences of my government on the passing of the journalist A. B. Oshua. I want to say that this morning I visited the Iyad Vashem and it was very emotional for me. The place is a testimony to the hate and violence and this very important commemoration and Italy is determined to fight against anti-Semitism and all types of anti-Semitism. That's why we protect the values of our republic and of the European Union, peace, fraternity and unity. I want to say thank you very much President A. B. Oshua. Israel is a state that is a friend of Italy and a partner, a long-term partner. Our relationship is long and has gotten deeper over the last few years in tourism and economy and other fields. Since the beginning of the pandemic there was an exchange of information between our two countries in order to improve our vaccination strategy and our ways of controlling this pandemic. We see that this cooperation in medicine and science will continue and will spread to other fields despite the coronavirus pandemic. The mutual trade has grown in 2021 and this tendency has also expressed itself in the first few months of 2022. I want to say thank you very much President A. B. Oshua and President A. B. Oshua. We intend to further strengthen our cooperation, especially when it comes to innovation, robotics, space and agricultural technology. Our bilateral agreement for scientific partnership and cooperation that was previously signed and the partnership and cooperation with high-tech companies is a way to move forward. When it comes to energy we stand together to use the eastern Mediterranean gas fields to develop sustainable and renewable energy. We want to reduce our dependency on Russian gas and to accelerate the change in energy policy with the goals that we have set out for ourselves. The Italian government continues to work because it has reached its peak and has negotiated peace in terms that Ukraine will be able to accept. We have also discussed the risk of disaster and food due to the blockade of the Black Sea and we have concluded that we really have to operate with the utmost urgency with safe corridors for the transport of the grain. We have very little time because in a few weeks the new harvest will be ready and it could be impossible to preserve it. I am Prime Minister Bennett, also spoke about international crises, specifically about the war in Ukraine. Italy supports and will continue to support Ukraine and Ukraine's desire to be part of the European Union. I want to thank the government of Israel on the negotiation and mediation efforts of Israel. Italy will continue to work in order to reach as soon as possible a ceasefire and even peace talks under conditions that Ukraine sees as reasonable. We also spoke about the possible danger of food shortages due to the blockage of the ports due to the war. We agreed that we need to arrange urgently proper and safe corridors for the wheat to pass through. We don't have enough time because the wheat will soon be ready, the harvest, and we will need to preserve that. We have faced the situation in Lebanon, Syria, where there is impact on the entire area, and we have examined the possibility of a relaunch of the peace process with Palestine. It is a topic that I will discuss today in the afternoon during my visit to Ramallah. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, dear friend. The meetings in the last few days or in these few days will enable us to take a look at the region and to support the normalization process between Israel and Arab states. We also talked about the situation in Lebanon and Syria where stability impacts the entire region or lack of stability. And we also talked about the possibility of relaunching a peace process with the Palestinian Authority, an issue that I will talk about also during my visit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Thank you. Thanks. Go have lunch. Thank you.