Italian Navy aircraft carrier Cavour.

(Taken from Italian Navy Facebook)

[Reporter Yang Chengyu/Taipei Report] China has recently been escalating its threat of force against Taiwan. It has been more than a year since Russia invaded Ukraine in an all-round way, and the situation in the Taiwan Strait has attracted global attention.

In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries have successively sent warships to the Indo-Pacific region for cruises and joint exercises.

As the only G7 country to join China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, Italy, after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in October last year, showed its determination to stand with the European and American democratic camps.

Italian media reported that Italy planned to send the aircraft carrier "Cavour" to Japan by the end of this year, and analyzed that "this mission is related to containing China."

In May last year, Li Xinxing, then my country's representative in Italy, pointed out in an exclusive interview with the Italian "Ant Newspaper" that many European countries' warships have cruised in the Indo-Pacific region, but "a leading country in the great Mediterranean has disappeared."

he said.

Hope to see Italian Navy aircraft carriers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Cavour in the Indo-Pacific region.

Li Xinxin's "wish" is expected to come true by the end of this year at the earliest.

Please read on...

According to a recent report by the Italian "Liberty Daily", Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, the deputy chief of staff of the Italian Naval Staff Headquarters, confirmed at a university conference in Milan that between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the Italian Navy will dispatch aircraft carriers. The strike group went to the Indo-Pacific region to cooperate with allies, including the aircraft carrier "Cavour" and a destroyer, a frigate and a supply ship. It planned to sail to Japan and return to Italy.

This task is subject to the final decision of the government.

"Liberty Daily" also said that before this, the Italian Navy will first send the Francesco Morosini (Classe Thaon di Revel) frigate (Classe Thaon di Revel) to the Indo-Pacific region to carry out four missions. months of cruise training.

The report pointed out that the Cavour will carry F-35 fighter jets, "the mission is related to containing China."

"Palermo Today" reported that the Cavour will first go to Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri's Palermo shipyard in Sicily for maintenance in May.

Recently, Italy and Japan have been increasingly cooperating on security issues. In particular, Japan, Italy, and Britain jointly announced in December last year that they will jointly launch a new generation of stealth fighter research and development called the "Global Air Combat Program" (GCAP). It is expected that by 2035 Officially entered service years ago.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto also went to Japan in the middle of last month to hold a tripartite meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Yasuichi Hamada and British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

When Yasuichi Hamada was interviewed by Ant News, he welcomed Italy and other European countries to send warships and planes to the Indo-Pacific region, and emphasized that this move would contribute to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.