[ad_1]
,
Along with other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Italy committed to increase defense spending up to 5% of GDP, meeting by US President Donald Trump at the June 1 summit in the Hague. The pledge questioned whether a debt-support and stable economy can stop it. It also investigated the idea that the € 13.5 billion ($ 15.7 billion) project connecting the Sicily island to the mainland of Italy can be paid as a defense-related class.
America warns, not so fast.
“I have even interacted with some countries today, who are taking a very extended approach to defense expenses,” US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitekar said in an interview at the Bleed Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Tuesday.
It was “very important” that the 5% target had specifically referred to defense and defense-related expenses and that the commitment was taken “directly” with the face, according to the messenger.
“It was not of bridges that have no military strategic value,” he said. “These were not schools which will be used in some way, some imaginary fictional land, for any other military reason.”
Especially when asked whether the bridge falls under the category of legitimate military expenses at the Strait of Mesina, Whitekar was clear.
“I am looking at that situation very carefully,” he said. “The good thing about this time in NATO compared to the Wales summit in 2014 is that we have mechanisms for monitoring.”
Many Italian authorities and politicians have reduced the possibility of classifying the bridge as a military property which can therefore be counted within the expense of NATO.
One argument was that Sicily host several major military bases in which NATO is used by forces. In April, a government document described the bridge as “strategic importance” for “national and international security” and said that “it would play an important role in the context of defense and security, which would facilitate the movement of the Italian and affiliated armed forces.”
There is no firm decision yet and the idea has been batted at a ministerial level, at a ministerial level, at a ministerial level, at a ministerial level.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who also oversees transport and leads the bridge’s effort, has kept the options open. He told reporters at a news conference last month, “It could be a double use to be used even more than security reasons.”
But the US is looking for evidence that its associates are spending on the battalion, artillery and tank – the required items for a fight – and not on the extraordinary feat of engineering. The construction of a bridge for Sicily has been a dream since the time of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and was left only by the late former Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi.
Whitekar’s assessment is that while Europe has carried forward military expenses, this is not enough. As he visits the field of assuring colleagues, the US is giving three messages in relation to his commitment to NATO.
They are important final observations, after the European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen’s day later, it was interrupted by landing in Bulgaria. Officials said the intervention was started by Russia.
-Endrea Dudic, Jana Bratanic and Donato Paolo Manasini with assistance.
Such more stories are available on bloomberg.com
[ad_2]
