ROME (ITALPRESS) – “What has emerged from the talks is that the U.S. strategy has profoundly changed. Their focus today is on China, so much so that even Russia and Iran seem to be minor problems, compared to what for them is the priority.” Thus, in an interview with la Repubblica, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto after the first meeting at NATO with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Ukraine,” he explains, “in this context, becomes almost, and paradoxically, a less relevant element, compared to the competition with China. Competition that is not only military but also technological, economic, and may have the goal, eventually, of separating Russia from China. It is very clear that the Americans are demanding that, now, Europe take much greater responsibility. Hegseth told us, ‘You have enjoyed American protection for free for 70 years and you have invested in social instead of investing in defense. You have paid for your defense with the taxes of Americans.’ Is he wrong? No, it is the truth! However, I also told Hegseth, in total agreement with Pistorius, that we can take responsibility for our own but the timing is important, it has to be defined together. We also said that we cannot accept that at the end of Ukraine’s peace path both Kiev and Europe are defeated, which would weaken NATO.” “At the NATO meeting, we told Hegseth,” Crosetto stressed, “that it is tactically wrong to anticipate points that can be used to get more from the Russians. It means playing important levers in advance. It is equally clear that Ukraine cannot be expected to arrive destroyed, at the end of the path of peace. So it will be necessary to continue to help it resist, until a truce and cease-fire is reached.” “Any multinational forces,” he adds, “can be sent only when an established peace process is deployed with assumptions of durability. And not within a purely European mission, but an international one, from the UN, hopefully, in which the Saudis, the Indians, the whole world, are also present. Not a mission of countries that supported Ukrainian defense and could be perceived as biased. Also because the Americans have said two very important things. One, that they would not send their troops to Ukraine. Two, that they would not want to apply, to the troops that will be sent to Ukraine, Article 5 of NATO, the central one, which is about the principle of mutual assistance. So, those who are going there on an international mission could also go there, but without American protection. Which is impossible because only they have the strength to provide a deterrence framework that is fundamental to the security of a peacekeeping force. The most serious scenario might be to organize a U.N. peacekeeping mission. It would provide for passage at the Security Council and would also pass with a Russian and Chinese vote. It would be important to involve the world, from India to Brazil to Arabia to China.” “Trump,” Crosetto declares, “has an unconventional way of looking at politics: he interprets the world through the lens of pragmatism, with the gaze of a businessman. And so Russia, for him, is above all a country with huge energy and natural reserves, ditto Greenland or Canada.” Or Ukraine “which is rich in rare earths. We have to get used to looking at the world with that look too, his look, or we will never understand the new American course.” “Europe must remain united, but it would need the 27, in moments of historic choices, to know how to delegate one person from time to time to represent them all. Right now, if I were them, I would ask Giorgia Meloni, because of the privileged relationship she has had with Trump for years, to try to play the role of mediator. The risk of Europe is that it will deflagrate instead. Meloni could be a conduit to talk on this issue. Perhaps she is the only one who can do it. And, believe me, I am not making this statement out of sympathy (also because I am not giving her a gift), or out of political calculation, but because I would like us to get through this moment as best we can,” the defense minister concludes.- photo Ipa agency -(ITALPRESS).
