NATO is equipping itself with a special envoy for the Southern front. A brand ambassador? Not a chance. A very serious role. A super defense minister who will represent the Atlantic Pact in the Mediterranean, with broad powers over European defense and delegation over Africa and the Middle East. Italy, among the countries that have proposed it, is a candidate to indicate the name that will lead the new structure. There is also Spain that has officially applied, true. And it is rumored that it would also like to have a Turkish minister. But from the summit in Washington the word has leaked that it will be an Italian to lead the Southern front of NATO. With a Mediterranean headquarters that Italy would already have ready, in Naples. The name is missing. The identikits are circulating. What the former Italian ambassador to NATO, Stefano Stefanini, does is rather precise: «We must present a single candidate or a strong candidate». The considerations are broad: «For our country it has long been a priority and there is a good chance that it will be able to have its own representative in that position».
Stefanini, who is an advisor to ISPI, shows the way and draws an identikit: “We must not fiddle with too many appointments, in life you have to choose and it is important, it is essential that Italy presents a strong candidate. Just one. Presenting more than one candidate is a mistake”, says the NATO expert. “The positions are assigned to individuals and not to the States they represent”, therefore “we need a man or woman who has the right credentials such as knowledge of NATO, the Mediterranean, the problems of North Africa and who has a certain international stature”. And it is “important that it is someone who already has a network of contacts abroad”. If the Italian government were to indicate only one name for the Defense of the Mediterranean, it goes without saying that that name might only be that of the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto. A man who enjoys the utmost trust of the Americans and who responds perfectly to the profiling that Ambassador Stefanini makes. Another former top ambassador, Riccardo Sessa, for many years the Italian representative at the North Atlantic Council (NATO) in Brussels, is also convinced that Italy will get the new slot up for grabs. “NATO has aimed for years at strengthening the Eastern flank of Europe, now it has understood that it needs to guard the Mediterranean in a new and more careful way.”
Russia has gained a foothold in Libya and Algeria. In partnership with China, it is striking at ports and airports, rare earth deposits and gas pipelines. Escorting traffic with Russian military ships that sail – undisturbed – across the Southern Mediterranean. NATO spotlights are even turning late on those coasts. And the guessing game is also fueled by talk of Elisabetta Belloni, who is head of the DIS but who previously, during her long years at the Farnesina, handled all the most sensitive dossiers in the area. And there is also the name of Marco Minniti, an expert on Libya and Eurodefense who, following his government experience, took over the presidency of the Med-Or Foundation, which deals with security in the Mediterranean. High profiles that, however, do not compete with that of Crosetto, who yesterday morning had a long telephone conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani. The nomination of Crosetto as head of NATO-South would be a feather in the cap for the Meloni government. A result that would simultaneously enhance the executive’s strategy of dialogue with Africa, streamline the government reshuffle, following the European nominations, and also secure Crosetto himself, on the hot coals following having reported that he feared “judicial opposition”. Tommaso Foti, FdI group leader in the Senate, does not reveal his cards, but confirms that the government has a weighty name in mind: “We will present our candidacy. As happened with the new attitude launched by Italy towards the African continent and followed by other European nations, we are finally faced with an all-encompassing approach in addressing current and emerging threats”. And Stefania Craxi, FI, president of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission at Palazzo Madama: “There are no other entities that can play a more dynamic and proactive role in this quadrant than Italy, to protect European and Western interests”.
#Crosetto #candidate #superministry #defense #NATO #Tempo
2024-07-16 14:24:46
