Summit Born in Vilnius, Meloni’s line: “Expand the Alliance” – Corriere.it

RIGA The fate of Kiev and the eastern flank of NATO is at stake. But we are also at a turning point in a metamorphosis of the organization born in 1949, with transatlantic security capable of extending to agreements and missions in other regions of the world, a sort of ongoing change of company name.

The request that not only Giorgia Meloni, but also Spaniards, Greeks, French and other members will put on the table of the two days in Vilnius: NATO’s military power, its capacity for prevention, its role as geopolitical stabilizer, must all make a greater investment both in the Mediterranean basin and in most African states. The Global South, for many reasons, is no longer a business to turn one’s back on.

The premier arrived in Vilnius last night, after a quick visit to the government in Riga, and a meeting with the 270 Italian soldiers who at Camp Adazi, in Latvia, together with other military contingents, contribute to strengthening the security of NATO’s Baltic front. It came with a desire to clearly advocate a shift in the primary interests and focuses of the organization that has been accused by the Kremlin of provoking the war in Ukraine.

It won’t be easy, because the Ukraine puzzle will certainly hold the ground (the answer that everyone is looking for and no one is able to guarantee: better or worse to have it join NATO, due to the ongoing conflict?), but for sure Meloni (in favor of a “simplified” accession of Kiev) will not be alone and will address a dossier that is now on everyone’s lips: What is the future of the organization? Is it right and to what extent to predict a genetic mutation, no longer just “North Atlantic”? Can the values ​​that NATO has up to now defended still be safeguarded within traditional borders? How much longer can we afford to give way, in Africa, to China and Russia?

As with other countries, Italy will have an interest in supporting its objectives but also in looking at the reasons for internal politics with greater emphasis than in previous months

. In June we vote in the European elections and support for the war is not at the top of the wish list of many voters, not just Italians. Meloni knows it, who immediately said she is against the cluster bombs proposed by the Americans, like London, and her European partners know it: some are giving weapons to Kiev but under the table, in a whisper, others like Rome from now on will perhaps pull a put the handbrake on, while remaining firmly alongside Zelensky. The possibility of using Pnrr funds to give Ukraine additional ammunition was approved by Brussels, but immediately excluded by Rome, unlike other EU partners.

There is also a personal profile in the premier’s participation in the summit: it represents a country which, while not shining in the percentage of its financial contributions, still remains the fifth largest lender to NATO (and second in terms of personnel); and it is currently seen by the allies as firmly anchored to that line of transatlantic loyalty and reliability that Mario Draghi inaugurated after the experience of the Conte governments. Unlike other European leaders, from the German Chancellor to the tenant of the Elysée, each with not indifferent weaknesses and fragilities, the head of the Italian government arrives with the benefit of a very solid leadership, domestic and European. And this too will count for something during the works.

On the other hand, the Italian proposal to exclude spending for NATO from the Stability Pact will have less potential for success, Berlin immediately said no and we don’t have a large group consensus. However, the initial datum remains: for Meloni, NATO must shed its skin, defending liberal values ​​means doing it on a global scale in the third millennium. Starting with the Mediterranean and Africa. It is not for nothing that five states from Asia and the Pacific were also invited to Vilnius. It is not for nothing that NATO could soon open an office in Tokyo. In that Japan that is reconsidering its entire security scheme and together with London and Rome it decided to build the sixth generation military fighter.

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