“Italy is not yet ready to join the coalition of resolute, that was de facto initiated by Macron. Restrictions exist not only because of external, but above all, internal factors – because of public opinion infected with Russian narratives, which continue to fall well on favorable pacifist ground. Support for Ukraine continues to be based on the leadership of Prime Minister Maloney, who turned out to be a very effective international operator for Ukraine at the EU level, and with the potential election of Trump in the United States, perhaps this will become a fact at the transatlantic level”.

This is the preliminary conclusion made by Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the New Europe Center, following an advocacy visit to Italy, which currently holds the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7). The program of the visit was intense, and the visit itself was intensive and productive. In two days, the delegation of experts managed to hold a series of meetings (most of them at a high level):

• meeting with a team of advisers to Prime Minister Georgia Maloney;
• conversation with the head of the Italian secret service, Elisabetta Belloni (recently responsible for the Italian presidency of the Group of 7);
• meeting with Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Edmondo Cirielli;
• discussions with the Head of the foreign affairs committee and former foreign Minister Giulio Terzi;
• a closed discussion with the leadership and team of the leading analytical center Istituto Affari Internazionali – IAI – a long-standing partner of the New Europe Center in Italy;
• coordination meeting with Women in International Security Italy;
• discussion organized by the Embassy of Poland in partnership with ECFR Roma and the Embassy of Ukraine;
• meeting with US Ambassador to Italy Jack Markell.

As part New Europe advocacy visit, Alyona Getmanchuk delivered a speech at a discussion organized by the Embassy of Poland in partnership with ECFR Roma and the Embassy of Ukraine in Rome . The main topic of the meeting was to discuss ways to achieve Ukraine’s victory in the war in order to achieve sustainable peace in Europe. During the event, the New Europe Center appealed to the Italian government with a request to raise the issue at the G7 level about the speedy guarantee of adequate air defense of Ukraine. Italian mass media focused their attention on this event, so more details about the speech of Ukrainian experts in Rome can be found at the link here.

The advocacy visit to France was carried out by the New Europe Center in partnership with ICUV (International Center for Ukrainian Victory) with the support of the “Renaissance” International Foundation.