SFRY – Italy: Tito’s Final Contribution to the Bilateral Cooperation Cover Image
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СФРЈ – Италија: последњи Титов допринос билатералној сарадњи
SFRY – Italy: Tito’s Final Contribution to the Bilateral Cooperation

Author(s): Petar Dragišić
Subject(s): Governance, Diplomatic history, Political history, International relations/trade, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Keywords: Yugoslavia; Italy; Tito; Pertini; 1979; bilateral cooperation; territorial dispute;
Summary/Abstract: The resolution of the territorial dispute between Italy and Tito’s Yugoslavia, as a result of the London and Osimo agreements in 1954 and 1975 respectively, paved the way for improving the Yugoslav-Italian relations. The process of normalization encouraged close political and economic cooperation between the two countries as well as considerable Italian cultural influence in Yugoslavia. Besides, the Yugoslav-Italian rapprochement was reflected in frequent high-level contacts between the political elites of Yugoslavia and Italy during the 1960s and 1970s. During his visit to Yugoslavia, in October 1979, the Italian president Sandro Pertini discussed with the Yugoslav party and state leader, Josip Broz Tito, the most important aspects of the Yugoslav-Italian relations as well as the burning global issues, such as the situation in the Middle East and Indochina, the détente, the non-alignment as well as the Italian role in the European Economic Community. The transcripts of the conversations between the two veteran politicians and their teams, which took place on 11 and 12 October 1979, indicate the highest level of mutual cooperation as well as their similar attitudes towards a broad spectrum of global topics, such as the détente, the Non-Aligned Movement, the situation in the Middle East and Indochina. The two presidents signaled their readiness to sett le the remaining disputes between the two countries, in particular concerning the rights of the Italian minority in Yugoslavia as well as the Croatian and Slovenian communities in Italy. Pertini and Tito expressed satisfaction with the improvement of the relations between Yugoslavia and Italy despite their opposite ideological preferences and their participation in the different global coalitions – the North Atlantic Alliance and the Non-Aligned Movement respectively.