Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani has decried former United States president Donald Trump's invitation to Russsia's president Vladmir Putin to attack Nato countries who did not pay their dues to the organisation.
"I won't meddle in the United States presidential election campaign but I don't agree with Trump's comments," he said
The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday any attack on the western military alliance would be met with a “united and forceful response”.
Stoltenberg and Tajani's commments came after Trump, the favourite to run again as the Republican candidate in this year's US presidential election, told a campaign rally in South Carolina on Saturday that he would "encourage Russia to attack any Nato allies he felt had not met their financial obligations to Nato.