The crisis in the Red Sea caused by attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen against civilianvessels "risks having consequences if we do not defend freedom of navigation", said Premier Giorgia Meloni on Sunday.
"15% of world trade passes through the Suez Canal: at the very best, blocking those merchant ships means increasing the cost of the products that arrive on our market," Meloni said in an interview to TG1.
"We cannot allow that," she added.
"What we are doing is promoting, together with the EU, a defensive mission to guarantee freedom of navigation," she added.
Rome, together with Paris and Berlin, has presented a plan for a European naval mission possibly also involving non-EU countries with similar rules of engagement to the existing EU mission Atalanta against Somali pirates.
Last Monday EU foreign affairs ministers gave attempt backing to the new mission, although the details of when it will start and the contributions from individual countries still need to be worked out.
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