Middle East, Ukraine wars in focus as G7 defence ministers meet in Italy

Italian defence minister warns global security framework is increasingly precarious due to competing world visions.

The Group of Seven (G7) defence ministers are meeting in Italy against a backdrop of brewing tensions in the Middle East and the drawn-out conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The one-day gathering on Saturday marks the group’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defence, and is being held in Naples, the southern Italian city that is also home to a NATO base.

In his address, Italian Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto said the global security framework is growing increasingly precarious due to competing world visions.

“The brutal Russian aggressions in Ukraine and the indeed critical situation in Middle East, combined with the profound instability of sub-Saharan Africa and the increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region, highlight a deteriorated security framework,” Crosetto said in his opening speech.

“Ample space” would be given to discussing the escalating Middle East conflict during the one-day summit, Crosetto had said a day earlier in Brussels.

There is also deep concern over China’s military activities around Taiwan and heightened tensions along the border of North and South Korea.

Warning that forecasts for the near future “cannot be positive”, Crosetto said tensions were fuelled by “a common driver: the confrontation between two different, perhaps incompatible, visions of the world”.

On the one side are the countries and organisations that believe in a world order based on international law, said Crosetto, a prominent member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party.

“On the other side, [there are] those who systematically disrespect democracy to pursue their objectives, including by a deliberate use of military force.”

The G7 meeting came two days after Israel announced it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that was followed by the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death in the Palestinian territory signalled “the beginning of the end” of the war against Hamas, while US President Joe Biden said it opened the door to “a path to peace”. But analysts say Sinwar’s killing will only deepen Israel’s presence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

On Ukraine, the G7 ministers will contemplate Kyiv entering a third winter at war, battlefield losses in the east – and the prospect of reduced US military support should Donald Trump be elected to the White House next month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, under mounting pressure from Western allies to forge a winning strategy against Russia, on Thursday presented what he called a “victory plan” to the European Union and NATO.

Under discussion will also likely be reports, based on South Korean intelligence, that North Korea is deploying large numbers of troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. NATO was not yet able to confirm that intelligence, its Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Friday.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies