Ministerial consultations between Italy and the UK

Prince of Wales Ship

Rome [ENA] Italian Ministers Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto are in Naples today, November 17th , to participate in the "2+2" (Foreign Affairs and Defense) ministerial consultations between Italy and the United Kingdom. Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper and Defense Minister John Healey are representing the British side. Following the first consultations in this format hosted by Italy in 2023, the United Kingdom is hosting

this year's meeting aboard the "Prince of Wales," the command ship of the British aircraft carrier group, docked in the port of Naples following the conclusion of NATO's "Falcon Strike" exercises in the Mediterranean. The event is part of the strong collaboration between Rome and London within the G7, NATO, and Quint, with the aim of strengthening the bilateral partnership, including in the field of security and defense. The Quint, or Quintetto in Italian, is an informal decision-making group composed of the United States and the G4 (France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom). It functions as a sort of "Council" aimed at discussing orientations and policies and pre-emptively evaluating decisions that are on the official agenda

of various entities, primarily NATO, but also the OECD and the G7/G20. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom are "nuclear-weapon states," while Germany and Italy have nuclear-weapon-sharing programs. The agenda is divided into bilateral meetings and, subsequently, a meeting between the four ministers to discuss security and countering hybrid threats, the latest developments in Ukraine and the Middle East (Gaza, the future post-UNIFIL scenario in Lebanon and Iran), and security in the Western Balkans.