NATO spending: US steps up pressure. Meloni: Rome is honouring its commitments
Ambassador Whitaker gives the slow-to-respond allies a dressing-down. Meeting at Palazzo Chigi between the Prime Minister and ministers ahead of the Ankara summit: commitments have risen to 2.8 per cent of GDP, almost double the 2024 figure
The United States is taking its allies to task for failing to fulfil their obligations, whilst Italia is preparing to respond by emphasising its reliability and commitment to honouring its pledges. With five days to go until the NATO summit scheduled to take place in Ankara, Giorgia Meloni has summoned Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Antonio Tajani, Economy Secretary Giancarlo Giorgetti and Defence Secretary Guido Crosetto to Palazzo Chigi. The atmosphere is described as ‘very calm and fully cooperative’, partly to dispel suspicions of fresh tensions between the Economy and Defence ministries, following the deadlock over the 14.9 billion SAFE loans and the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s decision to wait until September to decide whether to draw them down.
An update on the rearmament dossier is essential. On 11 June, the Prime Minister had already reported to Parliament that she would attend the summit with 2.8 per cent of GDP allocated to defence and security, whilst noting that the 0.71 per cent increase ‘is primarily driven by expenditure on internal security’. The 2.8 per cent figure, almost double the 1.6 per cent of two years ago, is in line with expectations of a gradual increase in defence and security spending to 5 per cent of GDP (of which 3.5 per cent is for armaments) by 2035, as agreed last year at Donald Trump’s request.
However, the US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, pointed to Poland, the Nordic and Baltic countries, and Germany as examples to follow just yesterday, whilst lambasting the all too many allies who are ‘lagging behind’ on core defence spending and the EU’s ‘protectionist rhetoric’. Italia does not feature on the list of model allies and, following the Sigonella incident, has ended up on the US blacklist regarding the other issue mentioned by Whitaker – the use of bases: the ambassador has announced bilateral talks on ‘access, deployment and overflight’. These words seem to foreshadow a US desire to review the treaties, although the government denies this possibility.
In any case, Trump’s repeated attacks on Meloni – the two leaders are due to meet again in Turkey – do not bode well for smooth sailing. For this reason, the strategy is clear: to defuse the situation with declarations of Atlanticism and seriousness. Speaking during Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies and recalling Rome’s role from Africa to the Balkans, from Lebanon to the Red Sea, Tajani maintained that ‘Italia wants to play a leading role in strengthening the European defence pillar’ and that ‘in Ankara we will reaffirm our commitment to military spending’.
Later that evening, new clouds were cast by a report in the German daily *Faz*, which claimed that Italy intended to oppose the inclusion, in the final Ankara declaration, of a reference to the continuation of military support for Ukraine beyond 2027 (voluntary support, which amounted to 40 billion in 2024 and 2025 and is set to rise further in 2026). ‘False,’ government sources denied: there is no opposition to military aid and no pro-Russian stance, only a focus on wording that would not jeopardise the prospects for negotiations and Russia’s involvement in achieving peace.
