The 3.3 kilometer long bridge over the Strait of Messina is estimated to cost around 13 billion euro and has now been lifted as central to national security and a way to increase the country's NATO investments. Parts of Italy's promised NATO budget are earmarked for investments in infrastructure.
However, there is criticism that the project can really be linked to the military investments. Alessandro Marrone, who leads the defense program at the Institute for International Relations in Rome, tells the Financial Times that the government should instead invest in upgrading ports and roads where troops are actually stationed.
Russia knows that Italian troops and reinforcements for the Baltic states or Poland will not pass this bridge.
