Russia's war of aggression in
Ukraine, the Middle East crisis sparked by the October 7 Hamas
attacks against Israel and artificial intelligence will be the
main focus of the Italy's rotating presidency of the G7 in 2024,
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on
Wednesday.
"The West continues to show great solidarity with Ukraine, and
the G7 that Italy will lead from January 1 will have the Ukraine
issue as its main focus, in addition to the Middle East and
artificial intelligence," said Tajani in an interview to the
news programme Mattino Cinque.
"For us it remains a priority to help Ukraine defend its
territorial integrity," he continued, adding that "Italy
continues to do its part, (by providing) all-round aid to the
Ukrainians".
"We want peace, both in Ukraine and in the Middle East. But
goals need to be reached that can truly guarantee a stable
basis" for negotiations, said Tajani.
"Occupation of Ukraine is not good, so we need to reach a
situation that leads the Russians to withdraw and then sit down
at the (negotiating) table," he added.
Tajani also said there have been too many Palestinian civilian
deaths in the war between Hamas and Israel and insisted that the
Israeli response must be "proportionate".
"The guiding compass must be a proportionate reaction: striking
Hamas, sending Hamas militants out of Gaza and achieving peace,
perhaps with the interregnum of a UN presence on the ground,"
said Tajani.
On last week's rejection by the Italian parliament of the
ratification bill for the new European Stability Mechanism
(ESM), the deputy premier, who is also leader of centre-right
Forza Italia founded by the late premier Silvio Berlusconi, said
the party has always been "coherent".
"We were in favour of the ESM, which is a fund to help states in
the event of a (financial) crisis, but we had reservations about
the new regulation, which extends the coverage to banks,"
explained Tajani after FI abstained during Thursday's vote in
the Lower House.
"We said that this regulation does not provide for any control
of the mechanism, meaning that money can be given (to the banks)
without anyone checking," he continued.
"There are checks when you help a state, and so there also need
to be checks when you help a bank, as there are for the European
Central Bank by the European Parliament," said Tajani.
Italy had been holding out over ratification of the reform of
the ESM despite strong pressure from Brussels, amid concerns
over budget sovereignty and claims that the mechanism should
also be used to support growth.
Premier Giorgia Meloni also said that she first wanted to know
the outcome of negotiations on the European Stability and Growth
Pact, the new rules on public finance that will come into effect
next year to replace the old ones suspended during the Covid 19
pandemic in 2020.
These were agreed by EU finance ministers at an extraordinary
ECOFIN meeting by video conference last Wednesday.
Italy is the only EU member state not to have ratified the new
ESM treaty.
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