BY ALDO DI BIAGIO *
I believe in the Italian Locomotive project in Eritrea from the very beginning, not only because of its historical-symbolic value but also because of its undisputed strategic value as an incentive for the rehabilitation of relations with Asmara, in restoring confidence in the Italian system as an economic partner and to solicit the regional driving role of our country.
That is why I have been the guarantor in every institutional circumstance so that this could really be implemented, overcoming the slowdowns and so that the commitments made since 2012 by Italy were not disregarded.
And now a part of those locomotives, the first 4, the subject of the renewed transfer agreement and implemented through my amendment to the decree of 2016 missions, have been restructured by the Government of Eritrea and are waiting to return to operation within a few weeks.
In the photo, you can see the latest stages of revision of the machines, in the perspective of returning to plow the historic railway Asmara-Massawa built by the Italians in the last century.
A 7-year journey that is about to take place in a particularly delicate historical moment at a regional level, and where the best practices of strategic bilateral cooperation like this are an omen and a premise of stabilization to watch carefully.
>> ALSO RAED : Interview with Italian Senator Aldo Di Biagio
The Italian locomotive project can be a reference for bilateral cooperation, fundamental in this season when the interactions with regional countries of migrant departure and transit, turn out to be scarce and not very effective for the purposes of correct management of the migratory emergency.
A new season opens in which geopolitical prejudice can be supplanted by prospects of cooperation and normalization.
(* Software translation from Italian)
