"It is urgent to define the new pact for immigration and asylum in the European Union, it is most urgent to define it soon and put it into implementation promptly". These are the words of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in the first visit of an Italian head of state to Cyprus, declaring to the press together with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides. "It is important to forge understandings with the countries of origin and transit of the migratory flow in order to collaborate for the improvement there of conditions: in this regard," the Head of State stressed, "the Italian government has launched the Mattei Plan to collaborate with the countries of the African continent in a way that involves the entire European Union. In the dialogue between the two presidents, all the main international dossiers were dealt with: "I expressed appreciation for Cyprus's willingness to be the basis for humanitarian initiatives with regard to the Gaza Strip: we shared," Mattarella says, "the need for a ceasefire" in the Middle East, for the situation "to be resolved without the risks of widening this dramatic conflict and further tensions in that region that risks exploding other problems of high gravity”.