Current G20 president Italy will organise a summit on Afghanistan in New York after the UN General Assembly next week, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio told daily La Repubblica on Friday in a wide-ranging interview that called for a genuine European defence policy.
"The G20 will take place after the UN General Assembly in New York, where I will be going next week. There will be a G20 foreign ministers' meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly to prepare the G20 summit," Di Maio stated.
Italy has asked UN agencies and aid organisations involved in Afghanistan to attend, Di Maio said.
"We must bolster international security by battling terrorism, also by protecting neighbouring countries which risk being impacted by the crisis in Afghanistan," said Di Maio.
The US withdrawal from Kabul and its recent nuclear submarine pact with Britain and Australia "demonstrates the urgent need to roll out a real European Union defence policy that cannot be vetoed by individual member states," Di Maio underlined.
Under the deal, dubbed AUKUS and announced this week, the US and Britain will provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.
"The issues of Afghanistan and Australia make all the more urgent a European defence that also coordinates with continental industry. This would be a a crucial step forward, not against our allies but to gain greater negotiating power," Di Maio argued.
"No individual country can compete alone against the US or China."
Despite "encouraging signs", the EU should be under no illusions that agreement among its 27 members on European defence will be easy, Di Maio noted.
"We must not delude ourselves that it will be straightforward. Defence is a topic that is also linked to foreign policy. In these two areas, we want to be able to adopt decisions by a majority, preventing stalemates due to vetoes by individual governments," Di Maio said.
"We are looking at what would be an historic and urgent turning point," Di Maio went on.
The minister declined to say if Italy should form part of a possible mini-group of EU states, if some countries block agreement on a European defence policy.
"I don't want to pronounce on this, and hope to reach a good level of agreement between the 27 EU members on defence and foreign policy," he said.
