Italy's Meloni urges NATO rethink on defence spending as Rome lifts outlays

Italy will ramp up its official defence budget this year, but NATO allies should rethink military priorities as warfare is transformed by drones, satellites and data, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday.



Addressing parliament, Meloni said she would tell a NATO summit in July that Italy would spend some 2.8% of national output on defence and security in 2026, an increase of some 0.71 percentage points on last year.



The bulk of this increase will come from spending linked to domestic security, including some police duties, with Italy taking advantage of NATO rules to include items in its budget that were previously excluded.



However, Meloni warned against a debate focused solely on headline spending targets, saying the war in Ukraine had shown that modern military power could not be measured simply by traditional weapons systems or the volume of expenditure.