Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said his country has "a conviction that there can be no stability in the Sahel without complete stability in Libya."

Addressing the European Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Di Maio noted on Monday, "the utmost importance of containing the terrorist threat in the region from the coast to the Gulf of Guinea, it is necessary to strengthen our commitment to help the contries in West Africa."

The head of Italian diplomacy said: "We support strengthening the role of the European Union in stabilizing the Sahel region, and the circulated working document contains many interesting proposals that need to be deepened and should be discussed in the context of regional and national action in order to implement the new EU strategy."