{"id":429587,"date":"2025-06-12T19:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T17:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/06\/12\/weimar-roma-nato-ucraina-sanzioni-tajani\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T20:03:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:03:00","slug":"weimar-plus-summit-in-rome-in-support-of-kyiv-rutte-nato-will-agree-on-five-per-cent-in-the-hague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/12\/weimar-plus-summit-in-rome-in-support-of-kyiv-rutte-nato-will-agree-on-five-per-cent-in-the-hague\/","title":{"rendered":"Weimar Plus summit in Rome in support of Kyiv. Rutte: “NATO will agree on 5 per cent”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Strong support for Ukraine<\/strong> and increased defence spending<\/strong> within NATO. These were the main points addressed at the meeting of the Weimar Plus Group<\/strong>, chaired today in Rome by Antonio Tajani<\/strong>.\u00a0Regarding the new\u00a05 per cent target<\/strong>\u00a0of the North Atlantic Alliance, the Forza Italia deputy prime minister assures Italy’s commitment but\u00a0requests<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0more flexibility<\/strong>. Meanwhile, the EU is pushing to adopt new sanctions against the Kremlin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The European defence top brass<\/strong>\u00a0met today (12 June) in Villa Madama<\/strong>, Rome, to discuss support for\u00a0<\/strong>Kyiv<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Euro-Atlantic security<\/strong>, including new NATO<\/span>\u00a0military spending commitments. At the Farnesina, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani<\/strong> welcomed counterparts from France<\/strong>, Germany<\/strong>, Poland<\/strong>, Spain<\/strong>, the United Kingdom,<\/strong> and Ukraine<\/strong>,\u00a0along with EU High Representative\u00a0Kaja Kallas<\/strong> and, for the first time, in the presence of NATO Secretary General\u00a0Mark Rutte<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Focus on defence<\/h3>\n

On the security side, the central theme is undoubtedly the need\u00a0<\/strong>to increase military spending<\/strong>\u00a0in the Old Continent massively<\/strong><\/span>. In their joint declaration, the ministers acknowledged that the European allies must<\/strong> “assume greater responsibility within NATO”<\/strong> and called for “an ambitious strengthening of European defence capabilities, by flexibly and sustainably increasing national security and defence spending<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\n

At Villa Madama with the ministers of the Weimar+ countries for an important discussion on Euro-Atlantic security and support for #Ukraine<\/a>.
\nWe agreed to strengthen our commitment to a stronger Europe, capable of defending its citizens and contributing to peace and… pic.twitter.com\/6IC639JRDc<\/a><\/p>\n

– Antonio Tajani (@Antonio_Tajani) June 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reference is twofold. On the one hand, there is the colossal ReArm Europe<\/strong> plan proposed by the EU executive: up to 800 billion in potential national investments by the Twenty-Seven<\/a> (stemming from the relaxation of Stability Pact rules<\/strong>) plus another 150 billion in joint procurement from the SAFE<\/strong> fund, to which also non-EU countries such as the UK and Ukraine will be able to participate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is the new five\u00a0per cent target<\/strong> to be set by the Alliance leaders at the Summit in The Hague<\/strong>, scheduled for later this month. But the watchword, precisely, is flexibility.\u00a0The host himself emphasised this: “Italy is in favour” of raising the bar, said the deputy prime minister, “but\u00a0we need to plan it over at least 10 years<\/strong>.”<\/span>\u00a0The Bel Paese has only recently reached the target of 2 per cent<\/strong> set in 2014.<\/p>\n

On the crucial issue of the timeline,\u00a0Rutte provided backing<\/strong>, meeting<\/span>\u00a0Giorgia Meloni<\/strong> for a bilateral talks\u00a0before the ministerial. “I have not communicated anything about a deadline<\/strong>” for translating the new target (consisting of 3.5 GDP points for military spending<\/strong> and a further 1.5 per cent in investments<\/strong> related in a broader sense to security) into practice, the NATO chief said, in an opening to allies with strained public accounts such as Italy.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a>
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomes Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte at Palazzo Chigi on 12 June 2025 (photo: Chigi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, there is no doubt that the former Dutch prime minister emphasised the\u00a0<\/span>need to “spend more”<\/strong>\u00a0and do so<\/a>\u00a0massively<\/a>, starting with the production of munitions<\/strong> and increasing air defence capabilities<\/strong>. Because, he argues, Russia could directly attack NATO territory “by 2029 or 2030 at the latest<\/strong>.” All agreed: for the German foreign minister Johann Wadephul<\/strong>, “defence capability should not be a theoretical debate, it is a bitter necessity.” At the same time,\u00a0Kallas reiterated that “a stronger Europe also means a stronger NATO<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Support for Kyiv (and sanctions on Moscow)<\/h3>\n

As for the Ukraine dossier, the participants reiterated their support for the aggrieved country, welcoming “the US-led peace efforts<\/strong> and recent talks”<\/strong> between the Kyiv and Moscow negotiating teams (the last in Istanbul earlier this month<\/a>) but deploring Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s less than constructive approach.<\/p>\n

“We are ready for peace, we want to end the war this year<\/strong>,” said Kyiv’s foreign minister, Andrij Sybiha<\/strong>.\u00a0However, according to his Polish counterpart,\u00a0Radoslaw Sikorski<\/strong>, the tsar is “making a mockery” of the openings granted by both\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>\u00a0(whose mediation\u00a0<\/span>doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere so far).<\/p>\n

\"Vladimir<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In order to force the Kremlin’s tenant to sit at the negotiating table<\/strong>, the participants at today’s summit reiterated their “readiness to escalate pressure on Russia,”<\/strong> including by resorting to the imposition of new sanctions<\/strong>. This is already being\u00a0discussed in Brussels, where the ambassadors of the Twenty-Seven are debating the\u00a018th package\u00a0<\/strong>presented\u00a0<\/a>by the Commission at the beginning of the week<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The new measures, which\u00a0must be adopted unanimously<\/strong>\u00a0by the chancelleries, are being vetoed by Slovak Prime Minister\u00a0Robert Fico<\/strong>, officially due to concerns<\/span>\u00a0regarding Bratislava’s<\/strong> energy security<\/strong>. From Rome, Kallas said she was “quite optimistic about a final agreement<\/strong>,” while Berlaymont spokespersons continue to repeat that “the Commission is constantly discussing with Member States” how sanctions can “work in everyone’s interest.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirms his government’s alignment but calls for a ten-year horizon to increase the level of spending. Kaja Kallas confident about approval of 18th sanctions package against Russia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":429584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30809],"tags":[31466,31487,26005,30095,26329,31488],"class_list":["post-429587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","tag-18-packet-sanctions-en","tag-5-per-cento-pil-en","tag-antonio-tajani-en-2","tag-nato-en-7","tag-mark-rule-one","tag-gruppo-weimar-plus-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429587"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429597,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429587\/revisions\/429597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}