Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano
said Thursday that Italy is not against increasing its share of
funding to NATO if other members do as well, but that "we need
to make a proper assessment first".
In an interview with Radio Capital, Alfano said that the
Italian defense ministry should be involved and that tasks
undertaken by members should be taken into account.
The comments came after the current US administration in
recent days called for other members of the alliance to increase
their contributions.
Alfano conceded that the US "contributes a great deal of
money", but stressed that "our operations in the Mediterranean
have something to do with defense tasks, do they not?".
Premier Paolo Gentiloni had told a NATO summit earlier in the
day that "we support the sharing of spending" and that "Italy
remains committed to the implementation of the Defense
Investment Pledge (to raise contributions to 2% of GDP by
2024)".
He had added that "we are the fifth-biggest contributor to
the NATO budget and the second-biggest in the two main
operations in Afghanistan, with almost 1,000 soldiers, and
Kosovo, with over 500 soldiers, and other operations".
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