Crosetto: I will take a bill to the Italian government and parliament for a new voluntary military service

reintroduce a new military service in Italy, as in France and Germany? If Parliament decides so, yes. I am thinking of proposing, first in the Council of Ministers and then in Parliament, a draft bill to be discussed that will guarantee the country's defence in the next few years and that will not only talk about the number of military personnel but precisely about organisation and rules". Thus Defence Minister Guido Crosetto to Tg3.

"It is a scheme that in some ways is not very different from the German one, because it involves voluntariness. The German one has an automatism that is triggered, the French one from what I read is totally voluntary'. This was clarified by Crosetto at a press conference in Paris, who then specified that the hypothesis of the proposal to reintroduce military service in Italy, which will be contained in a bill, would still be on a voluntary basis, as in France and Germany, and not compulsory.

Responding in Paris (where he met the Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin) to a question from journalists on the project of a new military service in France, Crosetto explained that 'if the vision we have of the future is one in which there is less security, a reflection on the number of armed forces, on the reserve that we could put in place in the event of crisis situations, must be made'. And he added: 'We have built models in the past years in Italy, in Germany, in France, which reduced the number of the military in this new situation all European nations are questioning those models that we had built 10-15 years ago and everyone is thinking about increasing the number of armed forces. Everyone has a different approach, some have even reinstated the draft. We in Italy should also ask ourselves the question of a reflection that in some way archives the choices made to reduce the military instrument and in some way leads to an increase in it. There are security reasons that make it important to do so'.

As for sending troops to Ukrainian territory, 'it is not a task for Italy, France or Europe, because if we do not build the certainty that Ukraine will no longer have to suffer an invasion, we will not have built a peace plan. Ukraine's security cannot be guaranteed by European troops going over there, because how many should there be? 200.000? 300.000?". Ukraine's security for Crosetto 'must be guaranteed by the security that the whole world gives to Ukraine that Russia will never again enter Ukrainian territory, but these are not guarantees that Europeans can give, Europeans can give guarantees to support the Ukrainian armed forces in the coming years'. This, he stressed, 'is because Ukraine will not have the internal economic conditions to support them and will need Europe's help to sustain its recovery, that yes, they will need more and more training, and we will give it to them'

Europe's role, for the Defence Minister, 'must be to ensure that there is a just peace, that it humiliates no one and is not questioned a month or two after it has been made and signed'. "I don't know what Putin has in his head, we hope that this time Russia really wants to sit at the table and negotiate. But if we look at what's happening I'm not optimistic because I see that Putin is continuing to enlist the military, is increasing reserves and is increasing investments,' Crosetto explained. And again: 'Let's see in the next few weeks, it won't take long to see if there is a real intention on Putin's part. I hope so, if there is Italy will play its part in Ukraine'