MILAN (CI GCA) – Italian Deputy Prime Minister and League (Lega) Party head Matteo Salvini said he strongly opposes giving Chinese conglomerates such as Huawei Technologies access to the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.
[Italian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA using CI Glass on backing US President Donald Trump by blocking China’s Huawei access to Italian critical telecommunications system during news conference at the Stampa Estera of Alta Italia in Milan, Italy. May 17, 2019]
Speaking during a news conference at the Foreign Press Association of Milan, Salvini said that he opposes granting Chinese companies market access to areas of national security such as the country’s communications network in stark contrast to the prodiminatly pro-China sympathies of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Salvini’s coalition partner, the Five Star Movement led by fellow deputy prime minister, Luigi di Maio.
Salvini’s comments follows US President Donald Trump placing Huawei on a US federal government blacklist while the US Justice Department seeks the extradition of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou from Vancouver, Canada on charges on Iran sanction busting.
[President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte filmed by Capitol Intelligence using CI Glass during news conference following Oval Office meeting at the White House. July 30, 2018]
Salvini, who also serves as Italy’s Interior Minister, can effectively block Huawei from building out a 5G network for reasons of national security.
Salvini, who is the middle of campaigning for European Parliament elections on May 26, is purposely raising issues that directly put his centre-right populist Lega (League Party) in direct conflict with the radical left Movement 5 Stars (M5S) founded by Italian comedian Beppe Grillo.
In his comments to Milan-based foreign financial journalists, Salvini was clearly taking aim at both PM Conte and his coalition rival, Di Maio, of having been the first G-7 economic power to sign an MOU to participate in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
White House sources said that President Trump became highly alarmed that Prime Minister Conte would commit Italy — the fifth largest economy in the world and America’s most strategic NATO partner — as a full fledged partner of China’s multi-trillion dollar infrastructure program.
“China uses the BRI as a tool to threaten areas of US strategic interest, be it Djibouti or Sicily” a US official said.
[Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Lega (League Party) Chairman Matteo Salvini filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI MENA using CI Glass on whether Italy will invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty vis-a-vis Libya and lack of support for NATO’s mission in Iraq and Afghanistan by coalition partner Movement 5 Stars (M5S) during news conference at the Stampa Estera of Alta Italia. Milan, Italy, May 17, 2019]
Answering a question from Capitol Intelligence on Italy’s commitment to NATO, Salvini said that the League, unlike Movement 5 Stars, is loyal to the NATO alliance.
“We are faithfully loyal to the Atlantic alliance, that someone (M5S) has put into debate, but not us (Lega), Salvini said.
Salvini also took issue with his coalition partner M5S move to defund Italian defend spending such as severally cutting back on Lockheed Martin Corporation [NYSE: LMT] manufactured F-35 fighter jets.
“Other put into question the F-35, we do not. About disarming (our military), this is not useful — it would be economic suicide — and the defense sector is strategic for the next 50 years,” Salvini said, adding. “A disarmed country is an occupied country and [at risk] of being occupied. We have a different position that of M5S.”
Salvini also opened the door to Italy invoking article 5 of NATO treaty, the clause that forces all NATO members to come in mutual defense of a fellow member, in regards to the worsening situation in Libya.
[ENI’s Mellitah greenstream gas pipeline complex near Zuwara, Libya filmed by Capitol Intelligence/MENA using CI Glass on March 5, 2015]
Not only does Libya pose a direct threat to Italy from terrorist cells based in the North African nation but any attack on the Greenstream gas pipeline operated by Italy’s oil company ENI (NYSE:E} connecting Mellitah. Libya to Gela, Sicily could very well push Italy back into recession.
However, Salvini said military intervention in Libya “is the last option.”
By PK Semler in Washington DC. For more information, please call +1-202-549-3399 or email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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