G7 Defense Summit Convenes as Conflicts Rage

G7 defense ministers started talks on Saturday against a backdrop of escalation in the Middle East and mounting pressure on Ukraine as it faces another winter of fighting.

Italy, holding the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven countries, organized the body’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense, staged in Naples, the southern city that is also home to a NATO base.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto welcomed each of the attendees, including NATO chief Mark Rutte and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

“I believe that our presence today... sends a strong message to those who try to hinder our democratic systems,” Crosetto said as he opened the event.

“The brutal Russian aggressions in Ukraine and the indeed critical situation in the Middle East, combined with the profound instability of sub-Saharan Africa and the increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region highlight a deteriorated security framework with forecasts for the near future that cannot be positive,” he said.

“Ample space” would be given to discussing the escalating Middle East conflict during the one-day summit, Crosetto said a day earlier, in Brussels. 

Also on the summit agenda is the war in Ukraine, development and security in Africa and the situation in the Asia-Pacific. 

The meeting comes two days after Israel announced it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the devastating retaliatory war in Gaza. 

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death in the Palestinian territory signaled “the beginning of the end” of the war against Hamas, while US President Joe Biden saying it opened the door to “a path to peace.”

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was in Lebanon on Friday, where Israel is also at war with Hamas ally Hezbollah. 

Speaking in Beirut, Meloni slammed attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon as “unacceptable” after the UN force accused Israel of targeting their positions. 

Italy has around 1,000 troops in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has soldiers from more than 50 countries. 

Ukraine prospects

On Ukraine, the ministers will contemplate Kyiv entering a third winter at war, battlefield losses in the east – and the prospect of reduced US military support should Donald Trump be elected to the White House next month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, under mounting pressure from Western allies to forge a winning strategy against Russia, on Thursday presented what he called a “victory plan” to the European Union and NATO. 

Its main thrust is a call for immediate NATO membership, deemed unfeasible by alliance members.

It also demands the ability to strike military targets inside Russia with long-range weapons, and an undefined “non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” on Ukrainian territory. 

Under discussion will also likely be reports, based on South Korean intelligence, that North Korea is deploying large numbers of troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. 

NATO was not as yet able to confirm that intelligence, Rutte said on Friday.

Saturday’s summit was to conclude with a press conference at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT)