Giorgia Meloni reached the NATO summit held atAjalanding at Amsterdam airport in the late afternoon of Tuesday 24 June.
The two days of meetings is aimed at reviewing the historic threshold of the 2% of the GDP to be allocated to military expenditure: the new probable goal is set to 5%. Eleven years after the Newport summit, the new parameters will no longer be symbolic objectives, but they will become a minimum level binding. In this new context, Italy aims not to be found unprepared, intervening on the method by which it calculates its contribution to collective safety.
The point of Italy
The climate around the born summit, called to approve the 5% increase in GDP for the expenses in defense and safety by 2035, has changed radically.
To favor the agreement was the truce between Iran and Israel announced in the night by the US President Donald Trump. A diplomatic turning point that strengthens the cohesion of the Atlantic alliance and, thanks also to the go -ahead suffered of the Spain by Pedro Sanchez, he takes Meloni from an uncomfortable position.
The premier can reaffirm the alliance with Washington without hesitation, defending the agreement between the 32 NATO members as in line with the requests of Italy. A summit born in full military escalation – with the United States directly involved in the conflict alongside Israel – it would have been much more difficult to manage.
Born, 5% of the GDP for defense
An agreement on the goal of the 5% of GDP for the defense From the NATO countries it becomes “probable”. Sources of the Atlantic alliance to the Agency report it Lapresseunderlining that it is a symbolic and strategically relevant goal, to which most states have already joined.
The distribution of expenditure provides for a share of 3.5% dedicated to military expenditure real, and a further 1.5% for the safety in an extended sense, also comprising not strictly military aspects. The alliance provided test intermediate to evaluate the ability and real commitment of individual states. The results of these tests, as well as the operational plans, are classified.
The planned military capabilities will be the subject of one revision Every four years, to verify whether the established objectives are still relevant to the changed geopolitical context and emerging threats. A general review was also announced in 2029.
Each country will be able to choose independently how to reach 5%, adapting the goal to their strategic skills and priorities.
Meloni’s words after agreement at 5%
Italy seems in any case intent on committing to the target of the 5% of the GDP invested in military and security expenditure. “We will respect the commitment”, assures premier Giorgia Meloni in front of Parliament while defining him heavy in economic terms, so much so that he asked for a derogation from the stability pact.
No bank with Spain by Pedro Sanchez and Robert Fico’s Slovakia who are fighting because they do not intend to align themselves.
The Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had clearly said it in front of the Chamber:
They are important commitments that Italy will respect. We will not leave Italy exposed, weak and unable to defend ourselves.
And opens for the military bases in Italy
Already on the eve of the born summit of 24 and 25 June at the Hague, followed by the European Council of 26, Premier Giorgia Meloni had firmly reiterated the position of Italy, without even excluding the possibility of authorizing, after parliamentary passage, the use of the Italian bases for any US attacks against Iran.
In the classroom in Montecitorio, Meloni had clarified that the increase in defense expenses will follow a path compatible with the other priorities of the government and consistent with the commitments made by the majority and indicated in the government program.
He then remarked his strategic vision:
Without defense there is no security, and without security there are neither freedom nor well -being, nor prosperity.
According to the premier, considering that Italy has already come to allocate 2% of the GDP to the defense, the expected increase – equal to a further 1.5% to be reached in the next ten years – represents a natural evolution of the commitments made since 2014.
Meloni had also underlined a key point obtained in negotiations: the Member States, and not NATO in a unitary sense, will decide which threats to face and with what tools, thus leaving margins of national autonomy in the implementation of the common commitment.
