Meloni reassures partners after Salvini’s ruptures

Washington – He speaks in front of the other NATO leaders, while in Italy his deputy Matteo Salvini chooses a line that here – at the Alliance summit in Washington – is considered to be soft to say the least with respect to Russia’s wishes. Giorgia Meloni intervenes and praises the organization, which is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary since its foundation: “NATO confirms itself as the most reliable and cohesive Alliance in history – she says – it has contributed to ensuring security and freedom for our Nations”. And again: “Our unity and our determination are, today, the most precious assets we have, and on this we can only allow ourselves to take steps forward”.

These are political messages, also aimed at reassuring partners, which see the attempt of a force in the Italian government – the League – to influence the line of the executive and weaken Meloni’s Atlantic positioning. The prime minister, not by chance, reiterates her commitment to Kiev, promising to “continue to support the legitimate self-defense of Ukraine, and with it the respect of the international system, without which we would all live a season of chaos”. The request to NATO, however, is to find a solution to the duplication of military spending: “Italian support will continue, but it must be targeted and effective, at the same time avoiding duplication, because 96 out of 100 citizens of the European Union are also citizens of a NATO nation and the national budget we draw from is always the same”. But that’s not all, because the Prime Minister insists on the need to send signals to Moscow, strengthening the organization’s military capacity: “The defense of Ukraine also depends on the deterrent capacity of the Alliance, and on strengthening the security of our nations, in which we must continue to invest”. This is why Meloni announces to partners that “the trajectory of Italy’s defense spending in 2024 is increasing. 2% is among our objectives, but it is not the only one. We must also work on an innovative and competitive defense industry”.

Finally, the Southern front: Rome has asked together with Madrid for the establishment of a NATO special envoy for Africa. And now Meloni insists: “If we are on the front line in defense of the Eastern allies, we cannot be left alone in the defense of the Southern front of the Alliance. It is equally fundamental in the context of the hybrid and global threat that we face”. The green light for the figure of an envoy, she underlines, is therefore a “starting point” from which to begin the work.

And the bilateral meeting that the Italian Prime Minister held with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fits into this desire to focus on the critical issues of the Southern front in a NATO perspective. “The meeting – reports a note from Palazzo Chigi – allowed the two leaders to review the main contents of the Summit, with a view to strengthening bilateral coordination within the Atlantic Alliance, particularly with respect to the Southern flank, as well as the most topical issues in the international context. At the center of the conversation was also the common desire to aim for further development of bilateral political, economic and commercial relations and collaboration on migration issues”.