Italy sees Stoltenberg’s “betrayal” in the election of Spaniard Javier Colomina as NATO special representative

The Italian Defense Minister, Guido Crosetto, considers the decision to appoint the Spaniard Javier Colomina His appointment as NATO’s special representative for relations with the countries on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea is a “betrayal” of its Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg.

“I consider it almost a personal insult, a deep disappointment,” Crosetto, who is very close to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and one of the founders of the far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) with her, said in an interview with the newspaper. La Stampa.

Official sources confirmed to Efe this Friday that the government Meloni sent a letter of protest to NATOin which he showed his surprise and disappointment to Stoltenberg for the appointment, which Not yet officially announced by the Atlantic Alliance.

Colomina is NATO’s Deputy Under Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy and the Secretary General’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Stoltenberg’s trusted man.

“I wrote him a very harsh message. It made me angry and it would have consequences at the level of personal relationships. It was a betrayal of a principle: it was Italy that had fought to offer the role of envoy for the southern front. And at the Washington summit, the 32 leaders agreed,” says Crosetto.

And he adds: “Stoltenberg did not want to name a representative for the South. He had to include him in the proposal because Italy wanted him, and thus he retaliated by giving the role to a Spaniard, a Spanish official who is already doing other work, effectively undermining the political objective that we adopted and endorsed at the NATO summit: That sounds like terrible behavior to me. “He ended his 9 years as head of NATO in the worst way possible.”

He emphasizes that Italy has no problems with NATO, “it has a problem with Stoltenberg. He is the only one responsible, probably because he is guided by the logic of political affiliation, having failed in his first responsibilities: to be above parties”.

Crosetto also refers to the FdI’s decision to vote against the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, which was highly criticised in Italy, considering that it isolated the country in Europe, by ensuring that it would have no influence on the election of the Italian Commissioner for the future Community Executive.

The minister also says that “we must take into account a possible change in the position of the United States”, because Republican candidate Donald “Trump is going to change his line, he is going to try to achieve peace by resuming personal dialogue” with (Russian President) Putin. This will have to be stopped quickly and this could be a problem.