by Marco Galluzzo
The summit is to take place in Erdogan’s country. The mission in Ukraine before the visit to the USA. Conte: No to ever heavier armor
Even if the chances of a resumption of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are currently reduced to a flickering, Italy, like other international actors, is trying not to neglect a possible glimmer of peace. If, on the one hand, Mario Draghi’s government is about to change the pace of military supplies to Kyiv, and also to send heavy artillery and tracked vehicles, then on the other hand, we continue to work to assume a guarantee role, if possible within the framework of a distant, but sooner or later necessary peace agreement. For this reason too, Italian diplomacy, at the suggestion of Palazzo Chigi, is organizing a summit meeting between Rome and Ankara, which will be expanded to include the government structures of both countries.
Of course, it will not just be a summit to revive economic cooperation. Turkish President Erdogan is currently the closest and most distant actor to the two warring countries, and it is not for nothing that he has organized several rounds of negotiations so far. When the Financial Times writes that Putin seems to have lost interest in any peace talks, the diplomatic thread does not stop: UN Secretary Antonio Guterres’ trip in the next few hours will try to revive the role and mediation of the UN in the Ukraine- Conflict and begins, before stopping in Moscow and Kyiv, directly from Ankara, where he will meet Erdogan.
The talks of the last few days between our Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and his Turkish counterpart have prepared the ground for a higher-level summit. It is likely that the summit will take place in Turkey and will serve to consolidate this guarantor role in an eventual peace and security agreement, which the Ukrainians themselves have asked Italy for. Meanwhile, Draghi continues the quarantine after taking Covid, he works away from Città della Pieve, his country house in Umbria. The negativity should be upon us. The trip to Kyiv, already made by many EU leaders and yesterday also by the US Secretary of State, seems to be confirmed in the coming days, almost certainly ahead of the visit to the White House, around 10 May.
On the domestic political front, the indiscretions published in these hours about the dispatch of further offensive weapons, including from Italy, have a trait. At tomorrow’s Ramstein summit in Germany, the Americans will take stock of military aid with around twenty NATO countries. And on this point the decision to send ever heavier weapons to the Ukrainian resistance is criticized by former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte: “If we recognize that there are all extremes of the right to self-defense as written in the United States Charter of Nations we must be consistent in legitimate defense and, in a situation of apparent asymmetry, offer means to those exercising their right to self-defense. We didn’t turn away, we faced reality, even if it wasn’t easy, “but” we are not ready for a military escalation. Italy and the other EU countries cannot think of avoiding this scenario by embarking on a mad arms race or gradually thinking of supplying heavier and heavier weapons ». Another ex-prime minister like Massimo D’Alema takes the opposite view: «Putin has already lost the war also because of the resistance of Ukraine. The road to a just peace can only be opened by Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against the aggressor. I think I agree with the behavior of the Italian government.
April 25, 2022 (Modification April 25, 2022 | 07:23)
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