FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BRUSSELS — Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s mission to the Belgian capital began yesterday evening around nine with Jens Stoltenberg. The NATO secretary general invited her to dinner at her residence, where her premier signed the guest book. A meeting that lasted two hours, in a restricted format to take stock of the day after the summit of the Atlantic Alliance in Vilnius. A meeting that is part of the ongoing consultations between the secretary general and allied leaders, NATO explains. Meloni will participate today in the second day of the summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a summit which according to the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen has a “historic dimension”, bringing together the leaders of the 60 countries eight years after the last meeting.
The timing of the meeting with Stoltenberg may not be accidental. On Thursday next week, Prime Minister Meloni will be in the White House. And with President Biden he will certainly also talk about the war in Ukraine. Yesterday’s meeting – at Palazzo Chigi they do not mention another Italian invited to dinner in the residence of the secretary general – was also attended by the diplomatic advisor of the premier Francesco Talò, who before being called by Meloni to his team was ambassador to NATO and his successor at the Alliance Marco Peronaci.
In Vilnius Stoltenberg was struck by Meloni’s analysis of Africa and the Wagner group, of the overlapping of the various layers of crisis. He asked the prime minister for help for an active presence of the Alliance in Africa in the field of security training. The G7 countries in Vilnius pledged their military and financial support to Ukraine, pledging to help it modernize its arsenal, especially its air and naval defense, at least until it becomes a full member of NATO.
Italy will also play its part and play an important role in assisting Ukraine’s security and guarding the Alliance’s borders. Meloni landed in Brussels after a Council of Ministers which gave the first green light to an increase in personnel of the Armed Forces of 10,000 units. Meloni spoke to Stoltenberg about Italy’s commitment, as well as about the challenges that await the Alliance in the coming months in a context of war on European soil. If support for Ukraine is solid among EU countries, the same cannot be said among CELAC members. In his speech, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recalled that the war in Ukraine «has increased inequalities and military spending. Instead of eliminating poverty and hunger, more than two billion have been spent to finance this war machine that only brings death, destruction and even more hunger. This EU-Celac summit is a way to say enough”.
The two supporters of Putin, the presidents of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro, who sent the executive vice president, and of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, who sent the foreign minister, did not attend the summit. The NATO secretary general in a tweet yesterday evening condemned “Russia’s unilateral decision to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, despite the efforts of Turkey and the UN”. And he stressed that “Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine continues to harm millions of vulnerable people around the world.” President Lula kept the point and said that “the use of sanctions without support from international law can only penalize the most vulnerable”. A non-isolated position that is making it difficult for the Sherpas to find a shared formula for including a reference to the war in Ukraine in the final declaration.