Nato summit, Meloni: 'sustainable' agreement. Yes to the 10% US tariffs hypothesis

An agreement from which emerges "the compactness of the alliance and the will of that alliance to strengthen itself". Having concluded the summit of the heads of state and government leaders of the 32 NATO countries, Giorgia Meloni commented positively with reporters on the final declaration committing to increasing defence and security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. "Commitments that are sustainable for Italy," assures the prime minister, who excludes for 2026 the activation of the safeguard clause already requested by twelve EU countries, including Germany, to enjoy additional budget space of up to 1.5% of GDP. "For the years to come it will be assessed on the basis of what the economic situation is." Between the long talk with President Trump at the dinner offered last night by the Dutch royals and this morning's meeting, the Prime Minister says she also touched on the tariffs issue as an "ongoing" one: on the hypothesis of closing the EU-US agreement to 10%, she says she is "quite in agreement. I heard the companies, it would not be particularly impactful'.

The increase to 5 per cent from the current 2 per cent, the Prime Minister emphasises, "is not far from the commitment that Italy already made in 2014 when it was at 1 per cent of defence spending in relation to gross domestic product and committed, as reiterated by all the governments that preceded me, to increasing it by 1 per cent. To this is added a 1.5 per cent expenditure on security'. Meloni confirms what she has already stated to the Houses of Parliament in recent days: 'These are resources that we have to spend and we spend in any case on subjects much broader than the issue of defence. The issue of security today coincides with a particularly broad domain that concerns border defence, irregular migration, critical infrastructure, military mobility, infrastructure in the most general sense, but also artificial intelligence, research, and technological innovation. Resources that are needed to keep this nation strong, as it has always been'.

"These are sustainable commitments," Meloni stressed. "I want to reiterate: for Italy, this expenditure is necessary to strengthen our defence, to strengthen our security in a context that needs it, but in a dimension that allows us to make these commitments in the knowledge that we will not divert a single euro from the government's other priorities for the defence and protection of Italians.

Asked by Il Sole 24 Ore about the need to find around 100 billion over ten years (from the current 35 billion spent on defence and 10 on security to 100 and 45 billion), the PM replied: 'I have heard many numbers given these days a little from the press, a little from Parliament, which seem to me to be very far from reality. We have obviously done our calculations for 2026 and we do not think we need to use the escape clause. Then clearly for the years to come we will evaluate on the basis of what the economic situation is.

Asked about the remark by the League's economic chief Alberto Bagnai on the unsustainability of the 5% target, Meloni cut it short: 'I came here after a resolution voted by the entire majority. I have explained several times that it is a decision that we have taken with full knowledge of the facts, making our assessments with the Minister of the Economy. I am convinced that it is sustainable, because of the magnitude of the expenditure, because we are talking about a ten-year commitment that in 2029 has to be rediscussed in any case, because there are no obligatory annual increases for the states, and this allows us to make choices based on the development of the situation at that particular time. So there is total flexibility'. The other Italian request that, according to the premier, has been met concerns the discretion of nation states on spending decisions: it is up to each one to choose what it considers a threat, because 'the threats faced by a nation facing the Mediterranean like Italy and those faced by a Baltic country are light years apart. So either we trust each other and everyone does their bit within this framework or if we think we can impose a single standard on everyone we are doing something that is not useful for anyone'.