KUWAIT CITY, April 19, (KUNA): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah will start Sunday a European tour that will take him to Italy, the Vatican and Germany in trip that ends on May 6.
Since his succession to power back on Jan 29, 2006, HH the Amir had been in a number of tours to countries all over the world all of which displayed strong bilateral ties between Kuwait and these countries.
These visits are also directed towards boosting cooperation in the domains of policy, economy, media and culture, tackling matters of mutual interest, in addition to presenting Kuwait’s issue to the world.
As for Kuwait’s relations with Italy - one of the stations of which the HH Sheikh Sabah will be stopping at -, diplomatic exchange between the two countries was launched back in mid 1960s and bilateral ties were growing stronger ever since.
Kuwaiti officials hail Italy’s supportive stance towards Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and praise Italy for taking part in Kuwait’s liberation.
During his visit to Italy, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah discussed with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi ways to boost bilateral relations in political, economic, and cultural fields, in addition to issues of mutual interest.
The visit was crowned by the ratification of two agreements; the first one states establishing a joint cooperation commission and the other on health and medical sciences.
Kuwait and Italy have previously signed a memorandum of understanding concerning civil aviation.
In 2003, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Al-Sabah signed during his his visit to Rome a memorandum of understanding directed towards boosting bilateral relations in all domains, organizing regular visits where prime ministers in both countries discuss cooperation and issues of mutual interest.
Meanwhile, Italian officials stress deeply-rooted bilateral economic and political ties which nourished in the past few years and they note to the fact that a number of Italian construction companies executed a variety of big projects such as that of the petrochemical complex of EQUATE along renovating desalination stations in Al-Zour and Doha.
They emphasize the fact that the Italian products distributed in Kuwaiti markets such as vehicles, garments, hi-tech, and construction materials reflect the huge commercial exchange between Kuwait and Italy.
Italian products account for KD 314,100,000 of Kuwait’s imports in 2008 while Kuwaiti exports to Italy were at KD 6,220,000.
As for cooperation in the civil domain, Italian-Kuwaiti Friendship Society was established on August 2, 1990 only hours after Iraqi invasion on Kuwait which came to condemn the aggression and support fellow Kuwaitis during hard times.