ADVERTISING

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Italy on Tuesday, where he met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella to discuss defense and support for Ukraine.

In July 2025, Italy will host the next conference to rebuild the country devastated by more than two years of conflict with Russia.

Since taking office a few months ago, Rutte has tried to strengthen Western support for Ukraine.

“With respect to Ukraine, we are establishing a new command, NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, which will be fully operational in the coming months, and we are well on the way to fulfilling our promise to provide Ukraine with an equivalent level of military support of 40 billion euros in 2024. We will continue to stand by Ukraine, because Ukraine's fight is our fight,” said the NATO chief.

Giorgia Meloni, for her part, calls for greater integration of European countries into NATO.

“As you all know, we believe it is necessary that, alongside the North American pillar of the alliance, there should be a European pillar. This is a vision that we share with the new (NATO) Secretary General and we share this vision.” “It is crucial for all of us to work on a European defense industry that is innovative, competitive and in which “NATO and the European Union can complement each other,” explained the Italian head of government.

At a time when Ukrainian troops are in trouble, NATO countries are divided over aid to Kiev. Italy, for example, rejects Ukraine's use of long-range missiles against targets on Russian soil.

Germany is not in favor of it either. At their meeting in Berlin, the NATO chief and Olaf Scholz addressed another topic of concern: the integration of the USA into the alliance in the event of Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election.