The meeting with Erdogan lasted almost an hour. There are the interpreters, the actual interview time is cut in half, but that’s enough for a tour over the horizon connecting with Giorgia Meloni’s first day at the NATO summit. In her closed-door speech, the Prime Minister emphasized the multipolar role that the transatlantic organization can play by expanding its traditional spheres of influence. With the Turkish President, he addresses the issue: The fight against terrorism, which needs to be more coordinated, must focus on an alliance that stretches from the EU to the Middle East, with Ankara being a key player.
The main focus is on the Mediterranean, African countries, both victims and accomplices of the illegal immigrant trade, terrorist blackmail and the influence of the Russian company Wagner: if NATO would point its antennas at this part of the world too For Giorgia Meloni could more than ever before, this broadening of horizons can only be accompanied by Turkish know-how and influence in these areas. One example in particular that is mentioned during the talks: Libya and the ability to intervene that Erdogan and his military are exercising in the great danger between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica.
Meloni is back from a bilateral deal with British Prime Minister Sunak, with whom he is also discussing the consortium project that also includes Japan for the sixth generation military fighter we are planning, but more importantly he is back from an intervention that behind closed doors lies doors, in secret theory, at the NATO summit where he just focused on the risks of terrorism associated with migrant smuggling. A part of the world that is a priority for Italy has been ignored for too long by both Washington and NATO. It would be time to set the course and invest more.
The fight against terrorism and organized human trafficking is central to Meloni, a dossier on which the stability of the Mediterranean and Europe depends. But what is a priority of our country may turn out to be marginal at a summit focusing on Kiev’s accession procedures to NATO: our country has a prudent line, it is for conditional accession, but everyone knows what this is about Topic matters First and foremost is the opinion of the White House, which has currently frozen the decision. Behind closed doors, Meloni reiterates what she has always maintained: Putin must withdraw his troops before he can start real negotiations and talk about a path to peace.
The Italian head of government therefore reiterates the hard line, which is in line with the dominant position in NATO: there can be no peace except with a withdrawal of the Russian positions, which the government in Kiev accommodates. Perhaps more interesting is part of the conversation with Erdogan, when the Turkish head of state called on Italy to once again strongly support his country’s EU accession. It is the first time that Meloni has raised this issue as Prime Minister in an institutional setting. During the election campaign, she sided with those European countries that consider Ankara unwilling to take such a leap. Yesterday she listened but did not comment. And already a silence is eloquent, a change that is enough for Erdogan to send her an official invitation to Ankara.
Incidentally, Chigi’s sources describe and summarize Meloni’s position, which focuses on three fronts: greater NATO development and investment not only on the Eastern and Asian fronts, but necessarily also in Africa and the Mediterranean; greater upgrading of the European chain of command, which now comprises 25 out of 27 members, very strong support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity. All with an explicit consequence: “NATO must remain united, we cannot divide.”