He is a head of state and the leader of a religion with over 1 billion followers, so i would say important enough

He said a few months ago he would retire in case of permanent health problems preventing him from carrying out his duties, so he doesn't rule out the option if it becomes necessary.

He can retire but he doesn't want to, at least not yet.

I'm not arguing either way, i'm telling you what the human traffickers think about it. I don't have an acceptable solution to the problem. But if they weren't extremely cynical people they would do something else in their lives rather than sending people on a literal sinking boat after extorting them and robbing them, you're mistaken if you think they look at a rescue ship as anything else than a way to make their profit margin even bigger.

Making the trip through the Mediterranean easier saves money to the human traffickers because they can give the boat 20 km of fuel then call a ship to rescue them. This makes it cheaper for them but they charge the same money, so it's a profit for the traffickers.

I'm not trying to say the NGOs are willingly complicit in human trafficking, i think they just want to save people that risk their lives, but it doesn't mean the traffickers don't use them to their advantage regardless

Defence agreement = joint weapons development, military procurement, that kind of stuff.

It's not a military alliance (and it's not like a military alliance between Italy and India would make sense when they have completely different strategic interests anyway)