Italy opposes Finland and Sweden joining NATO

The leader of the Italian League party, which is part of the ruling coalition, Matteo Salvini said that the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO should be postponed, and sending new weapons to Ukraine does not contribute to a peaceful resolution of the situation.

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“Not now. Everything that moves the world away should be put on a waiting list,” he said of NATO expansion.

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Speaking about the new deliveries of Italian weapons to Ukraine, which should be the next package of military assistance, the leader of the “League” stressed that “sending weapons will not help” to achieve peace.

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“It’s one thing to send economic and military assistance at the beginning, <…> it’s another thing to do it now. It is necessary to achieve peace, and sending weapons will not help,” the politician said.

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Salvini also supported the possibility of payment for Russian gas in rubles by the Italian group Eni.

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Earlier, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara is following the process around the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO and cannot yet look at it positively. Finland and Sweden started talking about the possibility of abandoning their long-term neutrality and joining NATO against the backdrop of a Russian special operation in Ukraine.