Your Excellencies, Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to welcome you this evening on the occasion of my appointment as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania in Milan.

I wish to thank Her Excellency the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Italy, Ms Dalia Kreivienė, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who strongly supported my appointment and honoured me with this role.

This is an important moment not only on a personal level, but also as a concrete sign of the increasingly close bond between Lithuania and Italy, and particularly between Lithuania and this extraordinary city that is Milan.

Milan is the economic and cultural heart of our country: a place where institutions, businesses, universities, culture and creativity meet. For this very reason, it represents the ideal ground for developing solid and fruitful relations between our countries.

My mission, as Honorary Consul, will be to strengthen these ties.

On the economic front, by fostering collaboration between Italian and Lithuanian companies in strategic sectors such as innovation, energy, technology and trade. On the cultural front, by promoting academic exchanges, artistic projects and moments of dialogue between our communities. On the institutional front, by consolidating cooperation based on trust and mutual esteem.

I strongly believe in a concept of diplomacy that is not only played out at major international summits, but that also takes root locally, in everyday life: in dialogue among institutions and citizens, between businesses and universities, between communities that learn to know each other. And if we think about it, Milan is already a school of diplomacy: because here different traditions coexist, many languages are spoken, and every day the city dialogues with the world.

I am reminded of the words of a great Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who once said: “Diplomacy is the ability to speak the truth with kindness, to defend one’s values without building walls, and to find in the other not an enemy, but a future ally.”

And this is the vision that will guide me: a diplomacy made of respect, openness and concrete collaboration, capable of uniting what sometimes seems distant.

I wish to sincerely thank the city institutions, the authorities present here, the armed and security forces, and the representatives of the diplomatic and consular corps. Your presence this evening is not only a gesture of friendship, but a clear signal of the value we all recognise in diplomacy.

It is also important to thank Dolce&Gabbana for allowing us this evening something that is usually reserved for very few in the world: the opportunity to visit the Haute Couture Salons and enjoy an aperitif there, and to admire up close their splendid and exclusive creations for the next season. Dolce&Gabbana is one of the few institutions of creativity, fashion and Made in Italy that is still entirely Italian and has not yielded to the temptations offered by foreign investors: we must be proud of these wonderful companies, so important for the image that Italy projects to the world and for the prestige they bring to the city of Milan.

This Milan which has always been a city with the task of uniting: uniting Northern and Southern Europe, defending both tradition and innovation, integrating those who arrive here and those who have lived and worked in this city for generations.

My commitment will be to strengthen these bonds and build new ones, making diplomacy not an abstract concept, but a concrete act that unites, creates trust and opens new perspectives.

I must take a few more moments of your precious attention, because it is unfortunately important to remember here some very tragic events that occurred not far from us: yesterday morning, during a mission in a farmhouse outside Verona, three Carabinieri officers were killed and more than 17 officers between police and Carabinieri were injured. Among the three Carabinieri officers tragically killed was also Lieutenant Marco Piffari, Commander of the Operational Support Squad of the Mobile Battalion of Mestre.

Marco was a great professional, a wonderful person and a rare example of integrity and dedication, whom I had the honour of knowing personally, from whom I learned a great deal and with whom, ironically, I also spent last weekend together with other friends. His passing touches me deeply and painfully, as I believe this heartbreaking event has touched all the Italian people.

This evening we have the honour of having with us Lieutenant General Dr. Riccardo Galletta, Commander of the Pastrengo Interregional Division of the Carabinieri.

To you, General, as the high representative of the Carabinieri here present, in my personal name, in the name of the Consulate of the Republic of Lithuania in Milan, in the name of the Embassy of Lithuania in Rome and on behalf of all of us, I wish to express our most heartfelt and profound condolences for the three brave Carabinieri officers who lost their lives while defending ours.

Just as the Carabinieri have always been so supportive, helpful and protective towards diplomacy, it is equally necessary that this evening diplomacy bow before the sacrifice of these three heroes and all the officers who every day live and die in the shadows, protecting both those they love and those they will never know.

I recall a phrase that Marco apparently always said to his team before every operation: “Boys, I’ll go ahead, you have families waiting for you at home and you still have a life ahead of you,” and he was regularly answered: “Marshal, we’re a team: we go in together and we come out together.”

May we all here tonight learn from such an example.

I conclude by sincerely thanking all of you for being here tonight to share with me the beginning of this new, certainly demanding but beautiful diplomatic journey.

Alessandro Maria Ferreri
Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania in Milan