ROME (ITALPRESS) – “It’s not like you can do in one year what you haven’t done in the last ten.” Thus, in an interview with La Repubblica, EU Affairs Minister Tommaso Foti, speaking about the increase in military spending, as demanded by Donald Trump. “But other presidents also demanded it, including Biden,” he notes, “and we each time found an excuse to get around the bar. The issue, however, “must be addressed,” explains Meloni’s loyalist, who agrees with colleague Giancarlo Giorgetti, “who does not intervene by slogans and is right to say that we will also have to assess how much the increase in investment will impact economic growth.” For Italy, however, “the unbundling” of these expenditures “from the stability pact” is crucial. That alone, however, is not enough. As for the assumption that the government wants to reach 2.5 percent of GDP, the minister calls for caution: “In the meantime, we respect the 2 percent commitment that, I recall, Giuseppe Conte had signed up to.” While the EU as a whole “must accelerate, starting tomorrow” on common defense. Regarding the Trump-to-Zelensky ‘duel’ at the White House, for Foti “there is something that did not work from the diplomatic point of view, it was not a masterpiece, but the real talk is that Trump, who does not come from politics and has a businessman’s approach, wants to achieve the goal of peace, as he had promised.” What about Zelensky? “He has a fear that there is an unjust peace and so there is friction. There are those who argue that Zelensky also took the wrong approach, in the White House, saying that instead of discussing the agreement he went to other issues.” But the situation “can be recovered” as long as “the West remains united.”
The former FdI group leader therefore revives Meloni’s idea of a united EU-US summit and explains that when the premier talks about expanding the table to other allies, “she does not do so referring to Ukraine, but to countries outside the Union such as the United Kingdom.”
“Meloni’s appeal,” she stresses, “is not to sneak away from supporting Kiev. She was very clear at Cpac. The Italian center-right has always been clear.” Except the League “have always voted for aid to Ukraine, if anything it is the opposition that cannot even organize a square together.” What about Salvini’s attacks on von der Leyen? “He is in the opposition, in the EU.”
As for tariffs, for the minister, “we need to avoid an escalation that leads to a trade war, which Trump is not even interested in. Because exacerbated duties then can lead to inflation problems in the U.S.” the European Union must “make itself ready, without a wall-to-wall approach,” Foti stresses, also because many of the U.S. president’s reasoning then, he adds, “is related to the fact that we need a serious commitment from Europe on defense, on which the EU today does not keep up.” Foti also criticizes Macron’s plan of European-only troops in Ukraine: “First I read the hypothesis of 30,000, then 100,000, then 200,000… It seems to me that these are somewhat confusing figures. And then where do we send them today? To war? Still to come to peace. Even then, however, we would only be there in a UN mission.”
– photo Ipa agency –
(ITALPRESS).
Foti “For military spending we start with 2 percent of GDP”
