UN General Assembly
2016

The women and men who make us proud to be a part of the Italian heritage know that we have not originated from nothing, but rather from the tradition to which I have referred, one that finds its highest expression represented by the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean is the sea that the Romans called Mare Nostrum — our sea. It is the sea where today hundreds and thousands of people seek refuge as they flee from war, from hunger and from poverty. The responsibility for that part of the world has become our ever-growing burden.