Minniti: for a stronger NATO we need an autonomous European defence
According to the president of the Med-Or Foundation, 'an autonomous European defence is not in contradiction with NATO. On the contrary, it makes it stronger. Not only has the mission of the Atlantic Alliance not been exhausted, it has been profoundly relaunched. However, dialogue with the global South is necessary'
by Pietro Menzani
Key points
"To have a stronger NATO we need an autonomous European defence. The two things are not in contradiction'. So said Marco Minniti, president of the Med-Or Foundation and former Interior Minister in the Gentiloni government, speaking at the seminar of the Special Mediterranean and Middle East Group (SMG) of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The conference kicked off on 11 May in the House Groups Chamber and is chaired by Fratelli d'Italia MP Giangiacomo Calovini.
The need for a common European defence
According to Minniti, Europe is decades behind on the common defence front, which is not a break with the Atlantic Alliance, but an added value: 'An autonomous European defence makes NATO and the United States stronger. Already in the late 1990s Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, said that there is no contradiction between the Alliance and European defence if one takes into account the three 'Ds': no discrimination, no duplication and no decoupling. These three 'Ds' seem to me extraordinarily topical. Let us put them back into the circuit of our knowledge'.
And NATO's mission, in an increasingly unstable international context, 'has not only not been exhausted, but has been profoundly relaunched. It is a fundamental alliance, which nevertheless today must regain its centrality and become an overall player on the planet'.
The Centrality of the Mediterranean
The president of the Med-Or Foundation then recalled the crucial role of the Mediterranean Sea for global balances. "The Mediterranean," Minniti noted, "has returned powerfully to the centre of the planet's agenda. The Atlantic Alliance cannot fail to think about this new scenario'.
Precisely in the Mare nostrum, in fact, according to the former Minister of the Interior, a series of decisive games are being played. The first concerns demographic imbalances: 'Europe is technically in demographic recession, while Africa is growing tumultuously. All this must be governed. It is necessary to build a great pact between Europe and Africa in order to create legal migration channels and fight human traffickers. We can no longer act as if migration were an emergency: we must consider it a structural fact of life on our planet'.
