ROME, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday that Europe should reopen talks with Russia, adding that it was too early to discuss welcoming Moscow back to the Group of Eight.
Meloni said she agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently called on Europe to engage with Moscow to continue efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“I think Macron is right on this. I believe the time has come for Europe to talk to Russia as well,” she told a traditional New Year’s press conference.
She added: “Because if Europe decides to engage in this stage of negotiations by talking to only one of the two parties, I fear that the positive contribution it can ultimately make will be limited.”
Negotiations to end nearly four years of war have accelerated since November. However, Moscow has yet to signal its willingness to back down after Kiev pushed for revisions to the U.S. proposal that initially supported Russia’s main demands.
Moscow has also given no public indication that it would accept a peace deal and provide the security guarantees envisaged by Ukraine’s allies, including the deployment of Western troops inside Ukraine.
Meloni said the EU should appoint a special envoy to deal directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid chaos.
“If we make the mistake of deciding to reopen dialogue with Russia on the one hand and in a disorganized way on the other, we are doing Putin a favor,” she said. “We had this problem from the beginning. Too many voices, too many formats,” she added.
One of the proposals put forward by the United States in November was to reinvigorate the now-defunct G8 by rejoining the G7 club of rich countries.
Meloni said it was “absolutely premature” to talk about welcoming Russia back to the G7. She also reiterated that Italy had no intention of sending troops to Ukraine to help secure any peace deal.
France and Britain signed a statement of intent last month to deploy multinational forces to Ukraine once a ceasefire is reached.
(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni and Alvise Armellini; Editing by Giulia Segreti and Crispian Balmer)