Italian PM Reminds Europe Not To Reply To Trump's Tariffs, Will Not Send Peacekeeping Forces To Ukraine

JAKARTA - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned European partners against increasing trade disputes with the United States by retaliatory rates. Melonyi urged Western allies to continue their long-standing cooperation.

Meloni, who is close to US President Donald Trump, said the relationship between Europe and the United States must be maintained and distanced from the assumption that EU countries need to form an independent security umbrella.

"This is a simple reality fact that it is impossible to imagine lasting security guarantees by separating Europe and the United States," he told parliament ahead of a summit of EU leaders later this week.

Trump has disrupted relations between Washington and its allies, freezing America's arms flow into Ukraine to force Kyiv to make peace with Russia.

Trump has also started imposing high tariffs on European steel and aluminum, complaining about the deficit in trading US goods with the European Union.

The European Union said it would impose a return rate on US goods worth 26 billion euros ($28 billion) starting next month. However, Meloni questioned the policy of this move and said Italy wanted a negotiated deal with Washington.

"I'm not sure that responding to tariffs at a higher rate is a good move," Meloni said, warning of potential inflationary pressure and economic slowdown.

"For this reason, I believe Italy's efforts must be directed towards finding a reasonable solution between the United States and Europe, which is guided more by logic than instincts," the Italian PM added.

Meloni has had a strong relationship with Trump and is the only European leader to attend his inauguration as president in January, which comes just two weeks after he met him to negotiate at his resting place in Mar-a-Lago.

However, Trump's move to rebuke Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House last month shocked many EU leaders, who endangered Meloni's hopes of becoming a bridge between Washington and Europe.

Fearing it could no longer rely on US, UK and French military support spearhead efforts to prepare peacekeepers mostly from Europe to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.

However, Meloni voiced concern over the plan and ruled out possible Italian participation.

"The deployment of Italian troops to Ukraine has never been on the agenda, just as we believe that the deployment of European troops proposed by France and Britain is a very complicated, risky and ineffective option," he said.

The Italian PM also questioned how the European Commission was trying to increase its defense budget on a large scale, criticizing its decision to label the project "ReArm".

"I believe that 'ReArm Europe' is a misleading name for citizens because we were asked to strengthen our defense capabilities, but right now it doesn't mean just buying weapons," Meloni said.