Defence Minister Guido Crosetto on
Wednesday expressed annoyance at a lack of consultation after
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President
Emmanuel Macron talked of Europe sending troops to Ukraine to
maintain the peace if an agreement is reached to end the war
with Russia.
"We have the 'European contingents' that the president of an EU
nation and that a leader of a non-EU nation would like to send,"
Crosetto said via X,
"You don't send contingents like you send a fax and a press
release.
"Especially contingents from other nations.
"If you speak on behalf of Europe, you should have the courtesy
to talk to the other nations and this has not happened for the
military aspects of the issue. It seems to me that it is mainly
a military issue".
The minister said a European defence force "can only exist as
the sum of national defences".
He added that those could only be "with methods similar to those
of NATO.
"Just like NATO does not have its own army, its own navy, its
own Air Force, but is based on national contributions that
operate together and are coordinated by NATO. The same would be
the case for Europe".
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