Antonio Tajani defended the decision to send an undersecretary to Washington insisting Italy is right to be present at the gathering, whatever form of terrorism is on the agenda.
Italy will be represented by a foreign undersecretary rather than a senior minister at an upcoming Washington summit on the alleged resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed on Monday. He defended the move in the face of criticism from the domestic centre-left opposition.
The gathering has been convened by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has invited senior ministers from more than 60 countries to a Department of State meeting in Washington. The meeting’s aim is to combat what the US administration describes as a resurgence of far-left terrorism on a transnational scale.
“We are interested in fighting any type of terrorism”
Speaking on the sidelines of an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Tajani made clear that Italy’s attendance was not in question, only the level at which it would be represented.
“We are interested in fighting any type of terrorism,” he said. “When there are initiatives to combat it, whether the terrorism is Islamic terrorism, supremacist terrorism, red or black terrorism, we believe it’s right to be present.”
“So it has been decided to send an undersecretary, and that’s what it will be,” he added. “Woe betide anyone who says, ‘No, we don’t want to fight terrorism.'”
Opposition cries foil to Trump
The decision to attend, even at undersecretary level, has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties. They framed it as further evidence of the Meloni government’s deference to Washington.
The Democratic Party accused the government of chasing favour with Donald Trump’s political base, linking the move to Tajani’s much-discussed appearance in a “MAGA” cap at an earlier event, the so-called Board of Peace. It described the Washington trip as another “unseemly out-of-town mission” undertaken to collect political capital with Trump’s movement.
The Five Star Movement went further, characterising the move as a “desperate attempt” by Premier Giorgia Meloni to repair her standing with the US president, accusing the government of being willing to embrace what it called a Trumpian model at any cost.
The row comes against the backdrop of a broader cooling in relations between Rome and Washington, after Meloni and Trump fell out over Italy’s reluctance to back US military action against Iran. Since then, there have been signs the two leaders are at least partly rebuilding what had previously been a notably warm relationship.
