A proposal to classify Italy’s planned Strait of Messina Bridge under NATO defense spending commitments has drawn objections from the US. The long-discussed bridge, which would connect the mainland to the island of Sicily, which was recently granted final approval by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition government, is already a controversial topic domestically, and now it has sparked international debate from a different angle.

According to reports, the Meloni government had considered presenting the €13.5 billion bridge as a “strategic security infrastructure project” to be counted toward NATO member states' commitment made at the NATO summit in June, where they pledged to spend 5% of their GDP, on core defense and broader defense and security-related investments by 2035. The bridge proposal reportedly raised concerns in Washington.