"Peace in Ukraine can only be achieved if Kiev is provided with adequate security guarantees to ensure that what we have seen over the past three years does not happen again," Meloni said in a press statement after a meeting in Rome with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson.

"Such guarantees are necessary to ensure that the European peoples who feel most threatened can instead feel safe," the Italian prime minister added.

"These security guarantees must be applied in the context of the Atlantic Alliance, because I believe that this is the best framework to guarantee a peace that is neither fragile nor temporary and which precisely prevents the risk that Europe will soon return to the drama of war," she added.

"Europe must have the courage to work concretely to strengthen this European pillar of the Atlantic Alliance, which we have been talking about for a long time, and which must complement the North American pillar, because NATO remains the cornerstone of our security," Meloni said. | BGNES