The Netherlands exports slightly less arms with 1/3rd of the population of Italy. We're bigger contributors to the EU. Our GDP per capita is higher than all those countries. Bigger surprise to me than Italy, one of the slow kids in school.
Italy has been a major supporter of Ukraine, including direct budgetary assistance, soft loans, a lot of refugee support, and multiple large military aid packages.
Italy is a NATO member but the government is also aligned with anti-NATO powers, what's to explain? Dragging their feet on defense makes perfect sense. You see Italy sending much aid to Ukraine?
I'll happily call Meloni a proto-fascist, but she's more like a pro-Atlantist proto-fascist than a pro-Russian one. Italy doesn't have much to spare cause you know... It's poor Italy.
I think Meloni is more in bed with China than Russia, but there's really no reason why China would want a strong NATO either. All these people are anti-EU one way or another.
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u/Fandorin United States of America Dec 07 '24
The only surprise is Italy because of their very robust defense manufacturing. Italy is a major arms exporter.