The final objective is always one: “A just and lasting peace”. And therefore “the issue is not to work on a counter-proposal” but “it is better to focus on a proposal that already exists”, i.e. on the US plan. This is the position expressed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who at the end of the G20, before going to the airport, met the press and took stock of the Ukrainian issue.
The Prime Minister, who today together with the Finnish president had a long phone call with Trump, reported that “I found availability on the part of the US president”. And in fact the US plan can be one “starting base” as “many points are agreeable”.
Other points of the US plan “must be the subject of discussion, such as those on the territories, on financing of reconstruction or about the Ukrainian army. There are very positive points, such as security guarantees with the involvement of the United States, a proposal that takes up an Italian proposal”. In short, the Prime Minister specified, “we can discuss everything but I don’t think it is useful at this stage to go into these details but look at the goal because the phase is delicate”.
In this sense, he underlined, l‘Europe must now give “a proof of maturity” that is, “demonstrate that it can make a difference with serious proposals, with proposals that take steps forward, therefore not simply saying yes, everything is fine, no, everything is bad, which would be a somewhat infantile approach for the phase we are in”. For the head of the Italian government, it would now be “an important signal” if it could be obtained on the part of Russia “a ceasefire temporary on civil and strategic infrastructures”.
But it is also true, he highlighted, that so far Moscow has not shown its willingness.
“Everyone is doing their part”, underlined Meloni, and at this point we need to increase the pressure on Moscow. Pressure which up to now, Meloni observed, “has brought maximum availability from Ukraine, maximum availability from Europe, zero availability from Russia”.
And therefore for this reason, we must insist because “otherwise the possibility of building peace becomes more difficult”. At the same time, Meloni believes that “Putin has no real will to end the war, which is why we have to call the bluff with a sensible proposal.”
As for Trump’s discontent towards Kiev, which appears to have shown itself ungrateful towards the US commitment, Meloni tends to minimize: “We all witnessed when Zelensky he clearly thanked the United States.” And he explained: “The need to continue working with our US allies also derives from the importance of their role in this affair, so if we were ungrateful towards them we probably wouldn’t even need them. And yet everyone understands their importance.”
Always with reference to phone call with Trump and regarding the criticism made by the US president regarding the fact that Europe continues to buy energy from Moscow, the prime minister reported: “I was the first to explain to the President of the United States that for example our dependence on Moscow was certainly significant but then Italy has done an incredible job since the beginning of the war: we have totally diversified, We are no longer dependent on Russia.”
The meetings of the next few hours
On the agenda in the next few hours is a busy calendar of meetings: Meloni anticipated that this evening a point will be made on the Geneva summit, then tomorrow Ukraine will be discussed at the summit in Luanda with the EU and the African Union, then on Tuesday new meeting of the Willing.
“We are certainly all committed to arriving at a proposal – summarized the Prime Minister – which can be as close as possible to what is desired, i.e. what is needed to have peace, to have an independent and sovereign Ukraine and to have greater security for Europe too”.