The Presidency of the Council of Ministers indicates in its statement, that in this contact, held at the Chigi Palace, the seat of the Italian government, on Thursday, the two leaders exchanged ideas on this and other issues, leading up to the next NATO summit, to be held in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24-25.

Rutte demands Italy, as a member of that military bloc, defense expenditures to 5.0 percentage points of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is difficult for this country, which currently can barely comply with the approved 2.0 percent, a report from the Corriere della Sera newspaper points out.

The Italian head of government expressed the need to consider the war budget, whose increase is a demand of the current US President Donald Trump, the expenses to protect national borders, and those for cybersecurity, mobility, civil preparedness, and strategic infrastructure works, among others.

The NATO secretary general told reporters that “Italy is an important and very active ally in NATO, which has a defense industrial base of which we are very proud,” with renowned companies in that sector, among which he cited the Leonardo Group, which he asked to “produce even more.”

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