Premier Giorgia Meloni said Italy remains firmly committed to NATO but will ensure that defence spending increases do not affect domestic priorities. Speaking after the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday, Meloni addressed questions on the European Union’s future in defence cooperation.
“We are part of NATO, which is the Western defence system based on national armies that cooperate,” she said. “If we were to build a defence of another level, it would mean either leaving NATO or imagining that NATO needs a NATO — which doesn’t exist.”
Meloni said Italy supports strengthening European defence within the NATO framework. “We are the European column of NATO, and we work to make our defence, and our companies cooperate much better at a European level. That is what we are doing,” she added.
Italy and Spain did the same thing
On the issue of raising defence spending to 5% of GDP, as demanded by US President Donald Trump, Meloni said Italy and Spain had taken the same position.
“Italy did the same thing as Spain, or Spain did the same thing as Italy, take your pick,” she told reporters. “We signed the same document. I didn’t witness any particularly controversial interventions this morning. It was all hooray, bravo.”
Meloni underlined that the commitments made would not come at the expense of Italian citizens. “We will not take even one euro away from the priorities of the government and Italian citizens,” she said. “These are necessary expenses to strengthen our defence and our security.”
This comes less than 2 weeks after Deputy-PM Tajani and Defence Minister Corsetto warned Italy would struggle to meet the 5%.
She also urged equal focus on diplomatic efforts in other conflicts. “I told President Trump and said at the summit that the same determination used in the Israel-Iran crisis must also be used for two other ceasefires — for Ukraine and for Gaza,” she said. “The situation in Gaza is unsustainable.”
Meloni described the summit as significant, with “important, sustainable commitments” for collective security.
