With three distinct votes the chamber of Chamber approved the commitment to the new international missions: one for Ukraine, the other Levante for the Middle East and the third Aspides for the defense of the Red Sea.
In his initial speech, which we publish in full, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani illustrated the nature and development of the missions.
The approval by the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, on 19 February, of the new Operation Aspides was “an Italian success”, said Tajani. “Our country was the one that wanted it more than any other,” commented Tajani. Aspides, the minister specified, will operate “in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aden and in the Persian Gulf”, “with the aim of protecting our traffic, containing the risks of regional escalation”.
The tasks will be of a “defensive nature”, “that is, the mission will not be able to undertake preventative actions”, commented Tajani, specifying: “I want to be clear, preventive of a military type”. In particular, “non-executive tasks are envisaged: collection and exchange of information in the maritime areas concerned, accompaniment of merchant ships in transit”. But the mission will also have “executive tasks of extended self-defense”, i.e. “neutralization of attacks that directly target escorted merchant ships and countering any attempts to seize the vessels”.