Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated her government’s full support of Ukraine and confirmed Italy’s commitment to NATO after she met with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Rome Thursday.
“Italy is at the forefront of NATO’s challenges”, said Meloni, reiterating Italy’s commitment to the North-Atlantic Alliance, adding that she fully supports the challenges faced by its member states.
“The transatlantic and European dimensions are obviously both fundamental to our security,” Meloni emphasised.
Meloni explained that she and Stoltenberg discussed how to expand the “fundamental” cooperation between NATO and the EU on the defence front, and stressed the importance of the challenges “coming from the southern flank”, alluding to immigration, as well as reiterating full support to Ukraine.
“Italy stands side by side with its allies for peace in Europe and to support Ukraine for as long as necessary. I warmly welcome Italy’s important contribution to Ukraine’s defence, with hundreds of millions of euros in financial and humanitarian aid”, Stoltenberg said during the meeting.
“The alliance is indispensable for the security and prosperity of our nations, without security there is and can be no growth for our societies, and of course, we must together defend the common values of our western identity. And that is what we are committed to doing”, replied Meloni.
In addition to defence against the war initiated by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Stoltenberg discussed cyber defence against the “threat from cyberspace” which is “real and growing”.
Before meeting Italy’s prime minister, Stoltenberg attended the NATO Cyber Defence Pledge Conference 2022 event, organised by Italy, the US and NATO at the foreign ministry’s office in Rome.
“Italy and the United States are both excellent examples of strong cyber defences”, Stoltenberg said.
“Our commitment to cyber defence is important”, he stressed, calling on all allied states to invest and cooperate to ensure a “collective defence” against cyber-attacks.
“An attack on one ally is an attack on all”, he clarified.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Source: euractiv.com
