Every day is a day of war in different areas of the planet, and no change is foreseen anywhere near, as a logic of war, confrontation and enmity is dominant among States.
Evidence of this is the increasing military expenditure linked to the production and trade of weapons.
The terrible war in Ukraine, instead of decreasing, is escalating with the direct involvement of the Atlantic Alliance States, to the point of risking a world conflict with nuclear weapons.
Developments in Russia’s aggression in Ukraine have caused the Swedish and Finnish governments to consider applying for NATO membership. We understand the concern and fear of being a target for possible war action.
We see the choice to join NATO as dangerous for peace in Europe, first of all because it increases military confrontation in the region and strengthens an alliance for war, instead of advocating de-escalation and a change of register that privileges alliances and dialogues for peace.
Europe has been torn apart by the World Wars and the European Union was born with the purpose of creating a ‘union’ to build peace and support and safeguard coexistence between peoples.
Strengthening military alliances means giving the force of arms predominance in the relations between states.
We should work for peace, with alliances for peace.
If Finland’s and Sweden’s neutrality fails, this could provoke a reaction from Russia in the context of an ever-expanding military alliance that was created in an anti-Russian perspective. The NATO membership of Sweden and Finland would strengthen the alliance that already includes 30 countries.
Unfortunately, Italy is a member of NATO and this means, among other things, the presence of military bases with personnel from other countries on our territory and the use of these bases for interventions in war zones in which we, as Italians, are not directly involved and do not want to be involved.
We are under pressure all the time to increase military spending and to comply with our treaty obligations.
It is a militarist commitment.
“Italy repudiates war as an instrument for the resolution of conflicts between states”; this is what is stated in Article 11 of our Constitution and it is what we loudly repeat all the time, even every time that unfortunately drones and military missions depart from bases on our territory. In addition, Italy, which through two referendums has rejected the nuclear option, finds itself unfortunately hosting around 70 nuclear bombs of others in these bases.
We, in Italy, do not feel more secure, on the contrary, we always feel fully involved every time a military aircraft takes off from the bases in Sigonella or Aviano or Ghedi, to name but a few.
All over Europe, including Italy, civil society organisations are mobilising to ask their governments to leave NATO, to abandon a military alignment that divides the world and is very often an enslavement to foreign powers.
We must stop this insane military escalation, insisting on peace negotiations, mediation and dialogue.
Non-violence is our lighthouse and history teaches us that a non-violent transformation of conflicts can be possible, so that the reasons for peace and the lives of the peoples involved prevail over nationalistic interests and logics.
We need new signs of peace, of openness to dialogue.
More weapons do not make the world safer, but closer to more easy deadly triggers.
Your history of neutrality is important; we need an ‘active neutrality’ that contributes to de-escalation and mediation and that strengthens multilateralism, to change course from the current ruinous path where the logic of violence prevails.
Our appeal, our Finnish and Swedish friends, is for the war to cease, for your peoples not to be involved and for lives to be spared, and for us all to work together to ‘build peace’, with instruments of peace, otherwise it will never be peace.
For we ‘peoples of the United Nations are determined to save future generations from the scourge of war’, but also and especially now, the present generation.
Let us continue together to work for peace and urge our governments to a real constructive commitment to peace, under the banner of multilateralism, while also supporting the full implementation of the UN’s purpose, ‘to maintain international peace and security’.
In fellowship with all of you.
