President Meloni’s address at the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing

Thank you very much Keir and thank you Emmanuel, and thank you moreover Volodymyr and all the colleagues that are here in Rome taking part in this conference.

I am obviously particularly pleased that we take part in this meeting together with Volodymyr and the leaders who are attending the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome.

I think the numbers of this conference show better than anything else the commitment we all share, not only about achieving peace but about a future for Ukraine, a future of peace, stability, sovereignty.

The Group has long been discussing our shared commitment to ensuring Ukraine a perspective of peace and security. I believe, obviously, that the Ukraine Recovery Conference is part of this work that we do together. The work that we are doing to enable Kyiv to restart economically and to rebuild what has been destroyed by more than three years of senseless war is an integral part of the efforts that we discuss at this table. It is a long-term investment in a future of peace, stability, security, sovereignty, prosperity.

Obviously our efforts are complementary to those of the US Administration in building that just and lasting peace which Kyiv has so often shown it desires more than anybody. Western unity, as I’ve been saying many, many times, is fundamental and therefore I’m particularly glad that President Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine, General Kellogg, and Senators Graham and Blumenthal joined the Ukraine Recovery Conference, but also for the first time this meeting and this table, and I’m quite proud it happens in Rome, so thank you for being here.

With its relentless and increasingly massive bombings of civilian targets, Russia, on the contrary, does not show any willingness to make any progress. For this reason, alongside the necessary support to Ukraine, I do agree on the fact that we must also increase pressure on Moscow, so to achieve as soon as possible a ceasefire that will finally make way for diplomacy. This is the debate we are going to do today, but as always we have to remind that it only can happen thanks to deterrence. It only can happen thanks to deterrence, as anyone who is not naïve perfectly understands. It’s not about a [inaudible] that we can have towards Russia, it is about what we can do to really make pressure and deterrence.

I think this is what we have to discuss and this is what we have to deliver on, and this is what the innocent victims and their families expect from us. A population that wants to rebuild, but it is also what our citizens, tired of the consequences of a meaningless aggression that has brought the war back to the heart of Europe, ask from us. 

As you know and as you see with this conference this morning, you can always count on Italy, at 360 degrees, and I’m very proud with the work that we’ve done together this morning. We’ve guaranteed to Ukraine agreements that are worth more than EUR 10 billion. So, thank you all, colleagues, and thank you also the private sector that decided to help us, and the organisations that participated.