The next few months will be fundamental for Italy within the Alliance and the EU to set some essential stakes in order to have a credible long-term vision. Dossier Tunisia and Africa in general and support for the Balkan countries wishing to join the EU are among the cornerstones of foreign policy announced several times in the press by Minister Tajani.
But something more important is boiling in the pot: to include an Italian personality among the figures who count within NATO. One thinks not of the successor to the general secretary Jens Stoltenberg but of the Military Committee, the highest body of the Alliance for operational matters.
Yesterday on the sidelines of the work of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani publicly said that Italy will nominate the current Chief of Defense Staff, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone.
The Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is NATO's body composed of the Chiefs of Defense (CHOD) of the member states. National CHODs are regularly represented on the Committee by their Permanent Military Representatives (MilReps), who are often two- or three-star general officers. Like the Council, the Military Committee also meets from time to time at a higher level, i.e. at the level of the Chiefs of Defense.
Since June 2021, the President of the Military Committee has been the Dutch admiral Robert Bauer. As military adviser to the Secretary General and the North Atlantic Council, Admiral Bauer is NATO's most senior military officer.
The possible appointment of our admiral, within NATO, will open the waltz of appointments in the top management of the Italian armed forces because it will be necessary to find a new chief of defense staff among the ranks of the Italian Army, or the Air Force.