US-EU: Meloni, I don’t see relations deteriorating, but Europe must defend itself

Rome, 5 December (LaPresse) – The new US national security strategy released by the White House? “I wouldn’t talk about a rift in relations between the United States and Europe. I think that what is written in this strategic document, beyond the judgements on European Union policy, some of which I share – that European migration policy in the past has been wrong, so much so that we are correcting it, I absolutely agree – perhaps says in more assertive tones something that has been going on for a long time in the debate between the United States and Europe. And I think it speaks of what some of us had the courage to define a long time ago as an inevitable historical process. Namely, that at some point Europe must understand that if it wants to be great, it must be able to defend itself and cannot depend on others. I have been saying this since long before the United States of America pointed it out to me. Because, as I have said many times in recent months, when you outsource your security to someone else, you have to know that there is a price to pay. So the question is: how much can you defend your interests? The Americans are deciding today how to defend their interests because they have the strength to do so. I believe that Europe must do the same. And so, not because the Americans tell us to, frankly, but because we must be convinced to do so. And that is what we are already doing’. So said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, guest on La7’s news programme. “It is an opportunity for us, clearly it has a cost, but it is an economic cost that produces political freedom, which is exactly what a sovereign political entity must do”.