Italy PM slams Putin’s ‘propaganda’ on Ukraine peace talks as G-7 summit ends
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaking at a news conference on the final day of the Group of Seven leaders' summit.
PHOTO: AFP
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BARI, Italy – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on June 15 slammed as “propaganda” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine effectively surrender before any peace talks.
“It doesn’t seem particularly effective to me as a negotiation proposal to tell Ukraine that it must withdraw from Ukraine,” she said, at the end of a Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Italy, and as an international conference on ending the conflict opened in Switzerland.
“Let’s say it seems more like a propaganda initiative... to create a narrative that wants to provide counter-information on where the responsibilities for the conflict lie.”
Mr Putin, who was not invited to the Switzerland meeting, had on June 14 slammed the conference and demanded that Kyiv effectively surrender
Ms Meloni sent her Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to the talks on June 15 and is due to attend herself on June 16.
At the G-7 summit on June 13 and 14 in Puglia, the leaders of the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Japan, Canada and Italy agreed on a new US$50 billion (S$67.7 billion) loan for Ukraine,
Ms Meloni said on June 15 that the US, Canada, Britain and “probably” Japan will contribute to the loan, but not European Union countries.
The loan would be backed by the profits on the interest of an estimated €300 billion (S$434.7 billion) worth of Russian central bank assets frozen by Western countries following the February 2022 invasion.
G-7 leaders said they hoped to provide at least some of the loan to Ukraine in 2024, to help with defence, Kyiv’s budget and reconstruction.
But crucial details still need to be hammered out, including who would provide the money and how they would share the risk in the event that the loan is not repaid.
The US has said it is willing to put up the entire US$50 billion but does not expect to do so, saying it would be a “loan syndicate” and the G-7 leaders would “share the risk”.
“European nations are currently not involved in this loan... Europe is already contributing by identifying the guarantee mechanism for the repayment of this loan,” Ms Meloni said. AFP
