ROME (Reuters) -Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday she had never discussed with Elon Musk a potential deal to use his Starlink to supply secure communications for the military.
Meloni, who has a good relationship with Musk, said the national interest was ‘the only lens’ through which she judged contracts with companies such as SpaceX, the owner of Starlink, and that she was not swayed by friendships or political views.
Reportedly worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) and spread over five years, the project has been sharply criticised by opposition parties questioning whether the handling of such communications should be entrusted to a Musk company.
“We are simply in the investigative phase, which is why I don’t understand all the accusations that have been made. I’ll tell you more: I don’t even personally have clear ideas on this matter,” Meloni told a press conference.
“Is the problem with SpaceX, the fact that it’s a private company or the political ideas of Elon Musk?,” she added.
Italy is evaluating the use of Musk’s space-based telecommunications system to provide secure communications between the government, Italian diplomats and defence officials operating in sensitive areas across the Mediterranean.
These secure services offered by Musk would be a more immediate solution compared to the EU’s IRIS2 (Iris squared) satellite constellation.
The multi-orbit array of more than 280 satellites, which aims to provide an encrypted backbone for EU governments and public agencies, is facing cost overruns, problems in financing and a full roll-out is not expected before end of 2030.
Meloni said that Italy faces a dilemma on how to protect its sensitive communications, choosing between two sub-optimal solutions.
“I am a layman in this debate, but I have to ask the question because if this information falls into the wrong hands tomorrow, the government is responsible, so I cannot pretend that the problem does not exist”.
(Reporting by Angelo AmanteWriting by Keith Weir, Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
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