PANTELLERIA (TRAPANI) (ITALPRESS) – “I have never thought that defence costs should be put as an alternative to other important expenses such as health, school, culture or any other type of social spending. Defence is the precondition: without defense, without freedom, there is no health, there is no culture, there is no freedom. Therefore, the defence is the tool with which it assures a democracy and people the opportunity to live in peace and freedom in the coming years.” Thus, the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, in video link to “Pantelleria, Mediterraneo d’Autore”, the review promoted by Myrta Merlino and Valentina Fontana.
“You can decide to do so in many ways: you can choose to do it yourself or within an alliance – he adds. It is much less expensive and much safer to do so within an alliance. We have the fortune, which we have inherited, to be part of the strongest alliance in the world, NATO. Being part of an alliance, like being part of a society, a family or a club, means respecting the rules that this alliance has given itself, both when you like and when you don’t like it. If you don’t like them, you can go out. But if you decide to remain in an alliance and in that alliance others look at you and say: “Well, each one of us has tasks, we must share them equally according to the possibilities.” They don’t tell you: ‘You have to do more than your chances’, but ask all countries to make the same effort, measured in relation to gross domestic product’.
“So – Crosetto emphasizes – who has a smaller gross domestic product will make a lesser effort, proportional to their gross domestic product, while the United States, which have the largest gross domestic product, make the greater effort of all. We have not done this for years. The United States has taken charge of our defence, our security, our deterrence, that is, the ability to inspire fear to the opponent, without asking us anything. From Obama – because it wasn’t Trump, it started Obama, then continued Trump, then Biden, and now Trump again with much more hardness – was asked to Europe: ‘Just, start guaranteeing your defense yourself, because we are committed to securing it elsewhere, and make the effort’. A goal has been set. We and the other European countries said: ‘We are unable to reach him immediately. Let us put ourselves as a point of arrival on 2035; in the meantime we see if the world situation evolves positively, perhaps this goal could change it, but in the meantime we moved.’ If you want to be part of this alliance, you must respect the commitments made. And that’s what I just remembered these days. Then next year, if the government arrives at the end, I will leave the Ministry of Defense. So I’m not talking about budgets that I administer, but about budgets that serve the state. I am speaking of this because I think it is necessary to ensure the safety of my son, your children and our future, and that there is no alternative to joining NATO. If someone has a different idea, say it. I don’t want to raise myself either with Russia or China; maybe someone thinks it’s better to pursue that goal, it’s legitimate to do so, but in that case we probably wouldn’t even need to build a defense, because they would think about it.”.
“The real relations with the United States are great, the same as we had a year ago, two years ago or five years ago. They have not changed at the level of armed forces, defense, Deep State or other ministers. I feel almost daily with my American colleague, as well as with other European and non-European colleagues. Trump – he adds – has his way of doing politics, his way of incalciating allies. You remembered the confrontation with Meloni, but he had many more with Macron, with Starmer, with Spanish: just the famous ‘fryed fish in the face’. It is Trump’s way of acting with allies when he wants them to act or react differently. He is doing this a lot on defence and security, because the United States is preparing not for a war in Iran, or a confrontation with Russia. The two great powers that will be confronted in this century, we hope not militarily, are the dominant power for eighty years, that is the United States, and the emerging power, that is China. So the goal of the United States is all focused on winning the technological challenge on raw materials, on rare lands, on energy with China, and it is a challenge for them to be exiled.”.
“In this framework,” said Minister Crosetto, “ pushes those who consider allies to move to build conditions so that the West is more feared and there is greater investment in defence and greater involvement. Some rules escape them; I told my colleague. Trump thinks Italy works like the United States, where if the President decides to make war on Iran, he can do it. Italy, Germany and Japan, as I reminded my colleague, are three nations defeated by the Second World War and whose Constitution was written to prevent wars. None of our three nations can declare war, such as the United States, France or the United Kingdom, for example to Iran. We need an international mandate, to be part of a coalition, or we can only defend ourselves. We therefore have completely different constitutional rules, which the Anglo-Saxons struggle to understand.”.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
