(Adnkronos) – European nations and the US will both need to ensure Europe’s future security, giving Nato an “important” role to play that will require higher defence spending and its exemption from EU fiscal rules, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
“Europe’s security will have to be guaranteed by us Europeans but also by the Americans: therefore Nato will have to play an important role and we will also have to pay more for defence,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of a foreign ministry event in Rome.
“Our position is known: increased defence spending but gaining exemption for this from the Stability and Growth Pact,” Tajani said.
A future United Nations peacekeeping mission “is the only solution” to prevent another Russian invasion of Ukraine once the current, three-year-old conflict is brought to an end, Tajani argued.
“‘I don’t think it would be useful to send EU or Nato troops to guarantee a buffer zone. The only solution is a UN mission, requiring approval by the UN Security Council,” he said.
Currently, however, post-war solutions to the Russia-Ukraine conflict “seem very premature to me”, Tajani said.
“First let’s reach peace, then we will see how to protect the peace.”
