Italy - Libya

On August 30 2008, after decades of negotiations, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, meets the leader of the Libyan Revolution, Muammar Gadaffi in Benghazi where they sign the Treaty of friendship, partnership and cooperation between the Italian Republic and the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Italy undertakes in this way to pay in the next 20 years five billion dollars in reparation to Libya to the colonial past. In the same occasion Italy returns to Libya the statue of the Venus of Cirene.

On February 6 2009 the Italian Parliament promulgates the law 7/2009 that ratifies and implement the Treaty of friendship, partnership and cooperation.

On March 1 2009 the Libyan general people's Congress ratifies in its turn the Treaty of friendship, partnership and cooperation.

On March 2 2009 with the exchange of ratifications between Berlusconi and Gheddafi in Sirte the Treaty of friendship, partnership and cooperation becomes officially effective.

The thirteenth summit of Heads of State and Government of the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of our America – Peoples' Trade Treaty, was held in La Habana, the capital of Cuba, on December 14, 2014 with the attendance of fifteen delegations. The summit ended with the approval of the final declaration, the admission of Grenada and Saint Kitts and Nevis as new members and the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of ALBA-TCP.

This month we suggest reading two interesting articles regarding the subject of the "Silk Road": "The Silk Railway: freight train from China pulls up in Madrid" by Stephen Burgen

"...The longest rail link in the world and the first direct link between China and Spain is up and running after a train from Yiwu in coastal China completed its maiden journey of 8,111 miles to Madrid. En route it passed through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France before arriving at the Abroñigal freight terminal in Madrid. The railway has been dubbed the "21st-century Silk Road" by Li Qiang, the governor of Zhejiang province, where Yiwu is located. Its route is longer than the Trans-Siberian railway and the Orient Express..."

and "Go west, young Han" by Pepe Escobar

"...The Yiwu-Madrid route across Eurasia represents the beginning of a set of game-changing developments. It will be an efficient logistics channel of incredible length. It will represent geopolitics with a human touch, knitting together small traders and huge markets across a vast landmass. It's already a graphic example of Eurasian integration on the go. And most of all, it's the first building block on China's "New Silk Road", conceivably the project of the new century and undoubtedly the greatest trade story in the world for the next decade...".