Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ahead of the European House-Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy, September 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

India and China can play a role in finding a solution to the dragging conflict in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday (September 7, 2024) after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Italian Prime Minister’s comments at northern Italy’s Cernobbio city came two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin named India, Brazil and China as possible intermediaries that could play a role in resolving the conflict.

“China and India have a role to play in resolving the conflict,” Meloni was quoted as saying in Italian media.

“What must not happen is to think that the conflict can be resolved by abandoning Ukraine to its fate,” she said.

“The decision to support Kyiv is in line with Italy’s national interest and will never change,” Meloni said, reaffirming her government’s full support for Ukraine.

On September 5, 2024, Mr.Putin, speaking at a panel discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, said that he was in touch with India, Brazil and China on the Ukraine conflict.

“First of all, it is Chinese People’s Republic, Brazil and India — I am in contact with my partners and I have no doubt that the leaders of these countries — and we have relations of trust and confidence with one another — will be really interested and provide a helping hand,” he said.

His remarks came in response to a question on possible countries that can act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kyiv last month during which he conveyed to Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an “active role” to restore peace in the region.

The Prime Minister said India was on the side of peace since the beginning of the conflict and he would even like to contribute personally for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Mr. Modi’s nearly nine-hour visit to Ukraine on August 23, the first by an Indian prime minister since its independence in 1991, came six weeks after he held summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Rome:

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday said that countries like India and China can play a role in resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

Giorgia Meloni’s remarks, made at the Ambrosetti Forum in northern Italy’s Cernobbio city on Saturday – where she also held a meeting with the visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – came less than 48 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin also highlighted India’s efforts in solving the ongoing crisis in the region.

“It is obvious that if the rules of international law are broken we will get a multiplication of chaos and crisis, but it is also obvious that with the multiplication of crisis, we will have a natural fragmentation of the geo-economic space, that is, in the long run, economic globalization and questioning of the rules of international law will not walk together. This is what I also said to my Chinese counterparts, we must choose, because the two things do not go together, it is also the reason why I think that in the end nations, like China and India, can play a role and must play a role in resolving the conflict in Ukraine,” said Giorgia Meloni.

On Thursday, while addressing the 9th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russian President Vladimir Putin had also mentioned India’s role in providing a “helping hand” in resolving the issue.

“We respect our friends and partners who I think are sincerely interested in addressing and resolving all the issues associated with the conflict (with Ukraine). China, Brazil, India… I am in contact with my partners and I have no doubt that the leaders of these countries, and we have the relations of trust and confidence with one another, will be really interested in providing a helping hand,” said Vladimir Putin.

Giorgia Meloni’s comments came after her meeting with Zelensky met on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum on Saturday where the two leaders discussed the latest developments on the ground and Ukraine’s “most urgent needs” ahead of winter.

“The Head of State thanked for all the allocated military and technical assistance packages and emphasised the importance of transferring the relevant weapons to Ukraine as soon as possible,” said Zelensky’s office after the meeting.

It mentioned further that the Ukrainian President informed Giorgia Meloni about the situation on the battlefield, the recent shelling of the country’s civilian and critical infrastructure and spoke about current defence needs.

“The leaders discussed steps to implement the decision of the G7 to provide Ukraine with nearly USD 50 billion from frozen Russian assets,” Kyiv asserted.

It added that the restoration and reconstruction of Ukraine, in particular of its energy system, was one of the issues discussed during the meeting.

The Italian PM’s office stated that Giorgia Meloni reiterated that support for Ukraine is a top priority on the Italian G7 Presidency’s agenda and reaffirmed the ongoing commitment to Ukraine’s legitimate defence and to a just and lasting peace.

The two leaders, it said, paid particular attention to the issue of reconstruction, also ahead of the next Ukraine Recovery Conference which will be held in Italy in 2025.

Later, in her address at the 50th edition of The European House – Ambrosetti Forum at Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, Giorgia Meloni also highlighted the risks of destabilization for the geo-political and economic global space, and said she believed global actors such as China and India “will be able to play a role in resolving the conflict.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rome:

A Milan court has ordered a journalist to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of 5,000 euros ($5,465) for making fun of her in a social media post, news agency ANSA and other local media reported.

The journalist, Giulia Cortese, was also given a suspended fine of 1,200 euros for a jibe on Twitter, now named X, in Oct. 2021 about Meloni’s height, which was defined as “body shaming”.

Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent. This country seems to get closer to Orbán’s Hungary: these are bad times for independent Journalists and opinion leaders. Let’s hope for better days ahead. We won’t give up!@Reutershttps://t.co/sWojOlMJz1

— Giulia Cortese (@GiuliaCortese1) July 18, 2024

In a response to a Reuters story on the verdict, Cortese wrote on X on Thursday: “Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent.”

Meloni had launched legal action against the journalist after the two women clashed on social media three years ago.

Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy party was in opposition at the time, took exception when Cortese published a mocked-up photo of her with a picture of the late fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the background.

Cortese responded with further tweets including one that translates as “you don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2 metres (4 feet) tall. I can’t even see you.”

Meloni’s height is given as between 1.58 m and 1.63 m on various media websites.

Cortese can appeal against the sentence, and Meloni’s lawyer said the prime minister would donate to charity any damages she eventually receives.

Writing in English on X on Thursday, Cortese said it was a tough time for independent journalists in Italy.

“Let’s hope for better days ahead. We won’t give up!” she added.

A high number of lawsuits brought against journalists was cited this year by Reporters Without Borders, which relegated Italy five places to 46th in its 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

Meloni is not new to taking journalists to court. Last year a Rome court fined best-selling author Roberto Saviano 1,000 euros plus legal expenses after he insulted her on television in 2021 over her hardline stance on illegal immigration.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni has separated from her television journalist partner Andrea Giambruno. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday she had separated from her television journalist partner Andrea Giambruno, who has drawn criticism in recent weeks for sexist comments made on and off air.

“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here,” PM Meloni wrote on her social media accounts. “Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it,” she added.

The couple have a seven-year-old daughter.

Mr. Giambruno is the presenter of a news programme transmitted by Mediaset, part of the MFE media group owned by the heirs of the late Silvio Berlusconi, the former premier and Meloni ally.

On two days this week, another Mediaset show broadcast off-air excerpts from Mr. Giambruno’s programme showing him using foul language and appearing to make advances to a female colleague.

“Why didn’t I meet you before?”, he tells her.

In the second, more explicit recording aired on Thursday, Mr. Giambruno is heard boasting about an affair and telling female colleagues they can work for him if they take part in group sex.

The TV journalist had already been widely criticised in August for apparent victim-blaming comments following a gang rape case.

“If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk – there shouldn’t be any kind of misunderstanding and any kind of problem – but if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and coming across a wolf,” he said during his programme.

PM Meloni had said after that episode that she should not be judged for comments made by her partner, and that in future she would not answer questions about his behaviour.

The partner of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has sparked outrage with his controversial comments on rape. While commenting on the gang-rape of a young woman, TV presenter Andrea Giambruno, said women could avoid sexual assaults if they ”do not get too drunk”, the Guardian reported. 

”If you go dancing you are fully entitled to get drunk … but if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, perhaps you’d also avoid getting into trouble because then you’ll find the wolf,” Andrea Giambruno said on his show on channel Rete 4 while discussing recent gang-rapes in the country. 

During the show, he also agreed with the editor of the rightwing Libero newspaper, Pietro Senaldi, who said, “If you want to avoid rape, above all don’t lose consciousness, keep your wits about you.”

His opinion has now sparked political outrage in Italy, as well as a row on social media. 

”They just can’t help but blame women. Don’t go out alone, don’t go where it’s dark, don’t dress provocatively. All this is no longer acceptable,” said Cecilia D’Elia, a senator with the opposition Partito Democratico.

“If a girl drinks too much, she can expect a headache, not a rape,” she added.

The opposition Five Star Movement party (M5S) said in a statement that “Giambruno’s words are unacceptable and shameful” and “they represent a male-dominated and retrograde culture”.

However, Mr Giambruno denied victim blaming and said his comments had been taken out of context, reported BBC. “I never said men are free to rape women who are drunk,” he explained, adding that he had prefaced his remarks by stressing that it was an “abominable act carried out by beasts”.

“If I had said something wrong, I would have apologised, but that’s not the case and there will never be a day when a politician tells me what to say.

“I said rape is an abominable act. I took the liberty of telling young people not to go out on purpose to get drunk and do drugs. I advised them to be careful because, unfortunately, the bad guys are always out there. I never said that men are entitled to rape drunk women.”

Mr Giambruno has a seven-year-old daughter with Prime Minister Meloni. Meanwhile, the PM has not yet commented on the recent rapes or her partner’s statements.