The Italian prime minister spoke by phone with the US president about support for Ukraine and the latest developments in Russia, after Joe Biden spoke with his counterparts in France, Germany and the UK.
In the conversation, Joe Biden asked Giorgia Meloni about Italy’s commitment to the Mediterranean, the collaboration with the European Union for stability in Africa and much attention was paid to the framework of the crisis in Russia and the impact related to the presence of the Wagner group in Africa”, explains an Italian government note published Monday night.
In addition, Meloni and Biden “reaffirmed the deep common ties”, the strength of the transatlantic alliance and the unity of NATO, issues that will be discussed at the next summit in Vilnius (Lithuania).
The opposition had criticized Meloni, considering that Italy had been left out of the first circle of US allies for not having been contacted on June 25, when Biden spoke with his German, French and British counterparts.
According to the White House, the President of the United States also invited Meloni to the White House in July.
Over the weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads the Wagner group, led a 24-hour armed rebellion, with the mercenaries seizing the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and advancing to within 200 kilometers of Moscow.
The rebellion ended with an agreement brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, which, according to the Kremlin, establishes that Prigozhin go into exile in Belarus, in exchange for immunity for himself and his mercenaries.
Yevgeny Prigozhin justified this Monday the “rebellion” of the group in the need to “save” the organization, denied having attempted a coup and added that 30 of his mercenaries died in clashes with Russian soldiers.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a speech broadcast on Monday on Russian television, accused those responsible for the rebellion as traitors and said that their actions only benefited Ukraine and its allies.
Source: TSF
