Zaharova, on her social media account, commented on Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's statement that "the EU should have an army that can play a role in peacekeeping and conflict prevention".
Quoting Tajani's statement, Zakharova said, "An EU army? Maybe you should start by developing your own Covid vaccine? Or learn to humanely protect the EU's borders in accordance with your international obligations? Solve the refugee and migrant problem? Only then should you create an army," he said.
Noting that if the EU creates a common army, it should also understand the fuel that military vehicles and airplanes will run on, Zaharova said, "Then the American President will come to Brussels and say that he will increase the price of fuel if they do not attack what he points to. By the way, why then should every EU member NATO country pay huge sums to the 'common coffers', in fact to Washington, to ensure their security as stated?"
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tajani had argued that in a world of crises from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific and powerful players such as the US, China, India and Russia, the EU should have an army to play a more effective role in conflict prevention. "If we want to be a peacekeeping force in the world, we need a European army and this is a fundamental condition for having an effective European foreign policy," Tajani said.
Pointing to the necessity of this army for the security of Europeans, Minister Tajani said, "EU citizens can only be protected by something that already exists, namely the EU."
