Italy has decided to secure passage for its ships through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait without waiting for European procedures, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto announced at the Forum Risorsa Mare in La Spezia. “We have decided, together with the chief of staff, to guarantee passage for Italian ships through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait without waiting for European bureaucracy,” he said.
Crosetto said his aim was to make the route safe and restore Italian shipping traffic, avoiding further economic pressures on top of those already caused by oil and gas prices. When a maritime route is interrupted, goods arrive late, costs rise and families and businesses face higher prices.
Economic crises fall hardest on the most vulnerable, he warned, putting social cohesion and the country’s stability at risk. Defending freedom of navigation therefore means protecting Italy’s supplies, the work of its businesses, families’ purchasing power and the country’s ability to generate wealth.
That protection also extends beneath the surface of the sea. Crosetto stressed the need to safeguard cables and other infrastructure on which Italy’s energy and digital security depend.
Separately, two Italian Eurofighter F-2000 jets took off from Šiauliai airbase in Lithuania and escorted Russian aircraft out of Lithuanian and NATO airspace. The Italian Air Force described the operation as routine and said it had caused no tension. It was not the first time Italian fighters had carried out such an escort in Lithuania.