Premier Giorgia Meloni said she was
satisfied with the NATO summit in Washington, at which Italy's
proposal for the alliance to have a envoy for its southern flank
was discussed.
She also reiterated Italy's support for Ukraine following the
Russian invasion and indirectly chided Deputy Premier and
Transport Minister Matteo Salvini after he suggested sending
military aid to Kyiv was only prolonging the war.
"The balance sheet of this NATO summit is positive," Meloni told
reporters.
"I'm satisfied, especially about the creation of a special envoy
for the southern flank, which we had asked for and for which we
will propose our candidate".
She said the discussions on Ukraine "focused on air-defence
systems, which are the best way to defend an nation under
attack.
"I say that also to those from the various quarters who continue
to say that, by sending weapons to Ukraine, you feed the war,"
Meloni said.
"It depends on what you send because, if we hadn't sent
air-defence systems, the missiles would have been launched
anyway, hitting many more people.
"We saw this a few days ago with the Kyiv hospital".
After having bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit with
Turkish President Recep Erdogan, new British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer and Polish President Andrzej Duda, she also met
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Among other things, the leaders discussed the conference for the
reconstruction of Ukraine that Italy will host in June 2025.
"I informed her about the situation at the front and Russian air
terror against Ukrainian cities," Zelensky said via Telegram
after the meeting with Meloni.
"We discussed the main needs of Ukraine, in particular air
defence.
"Thank you because Ukraine's defence capability and
reconstruction are being among the priority issues of the
Italian G7 presidency this year".
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