Poseta Josipa Broza Tita Italiji 1971. godine
The Visit of Josip Broz Tito to Italy in 1971

Author(s): Biljana Mišić Ilić
Subject(s): Diplomatic history, Political history, International relations/trade, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Keywords: Yugoslavia; Italy; Josip Broz Tito; Aldo Moro; border;
Summary/Abstract: The visit of Josip Broz Tito in March 1971 was the first official visit of a Yugoslav chief of state to that country. It was originally set for December 1970 but it was postponed by several months. The reasons for the delay were political differences between the two countries revolving around the questions of not definitively determined borders, situation of minorities, citizenship and property that remained open after the Memorandum on Agreement had been signed and about which the two states conducted futile secret talks during the 1960s. During the several months long intensive preparations Yugoslav officials strove to include these bilateral moot questions into the agenda of the visit Slovenia particularly insisted on it, being primarily interested in regulating the status of the Slovene minority in Italy. On the other hand, the Italian political circles strove to avoid discussing these topics and to lend the visit a protocol character. Differing views on the contents of the talks and the character of the visit spurred the official Belgrade to postpon the visit After this decision both countries tried to overcome the misunderstanding and to realize the visit. The most important step in that direction was the meeting of the two foreign ministers, Aldo Moro and Mirko Tepavac in Venice in February 1971. The importance of this meeting lay in the fact that the unsolved bilateral matters were treated in an official form for the first time and on the level of ministers at that Only after this meeting the visit could be realized. During the visit the talks ran on three levels. Tito devoted most of the time to talks about international matters. The unresolved bilateral questions were the topic of talks between Tepavac and Moro, whereas economic topics were discussed between the member of the federal government Tomo Granfil and the minister of foreign trade Mario Zagari. Summing up the results of the visit both parties assessed it as a big success because a favourable political atmosphere was created for resolving the remaining open questions.

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