ROME -- Fratelli d’Italia’s Defence Ninister, Guido Crosetto, has hurled scathing criticisms at NATO following its recent decision to appoint a Spanish diplomat as the Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood.

  In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Crosetto expressed his disappointment with NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg’s decision to appoint the Spanish diplomat Javier Colomina as the Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood.

  “I wrote him a very harsh message. It infuriated me and there will be consequences on a personal level. His was a betrayal of principle: it was Italy who had fought to introduce the role of a representative for the Southern Neighbourhood,” Crosetto said. 

  “At the Washington summit, 32 leaders agreed with us. In 20 years’ time, 2 and a half billion people in Africa will be the main problem for the Atlantic Alliance because they will become an army in the hands of those countries which have already started to occupy the continent in recent years: Russia and China.” 

  “Stoltenberg did not want to nominate a representative for the South. He had to put it in the resolution because Italy wanted it and so he took revenge, giving the role to a Spaniard, a Spanish official who already has another job, in fact emptying the political objective that we pursued and approved at the NATO summit: I find it to be awful behaviour. He ended his 9 years at the head of NATO in the worst way.”

  After Stoltenberg’s term ends in October, Crosetto hopes that the role “will be given to the best person, not based on internal bureaucratic logic or for political sympathy. And I expect that those who strongly wanted the introduction of this role will be taken into account: Italy.”

  “He is the only one responsible, he chose the person for the role, based on opaque criteria and internal bureaucratic logic, without consulting his allies, perhaps because he was driven by the logic of political affiliation, failing his first responsibility: being impartial.” 

  Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia also voted against the presidential re-election of Ursula Von der Leyen. “The discussions held in recent days seem to me to be unrealistic: you approach the European Commission presidential vote as if you were talking about the Italian Council Presidency, whereas they are two realities with very different mechanisms.” 

  Crosetto also noted the changes in the West which may occur if Trump is elected in the US presidential elections. “I believe he will change the lines; he will try to obtain peace by resuming a personal dialogue with Putin to end this hastily and that could be a problem.” 

  “If international law is set aside, the law of the strongest prevails. That counts for Ukraine as for Israel. Faced with territories occupied with armoured tanks, one cannot end the war by freezing the borders to quickly shelve the problem. It would be an easy route to find peace, but justice is another thing. And with Trump only that would change.” 

lw