U.S. pullback from commitments to European security has sounded alarm bells
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Possible alternatives to Starlink for secure satellite-based communications to the government include Eutelsat Communications SA, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. Musk, a close ally of United States President Donald Trump, is also seen as an unreliable partner by some in Meloni’s administration, they said.
A spokesperson for the Italian government declined to comment. SpaceX, which owns Starlink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Eutelsat regularly engages with European governments and institutions on secure satellite communications,” a Eutelsat spokesperson said, adding that the company doesn’t comment on ongoing discussions with specific governments.
The issue came up at a meeting with ministers Tuesday, when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said changing geopolitics required looking for viable SpaceX alternatives, according to the people familiar. President Sergio Mattarella is among those who strongly support considering different options, they said.
Reuters reported earlier that Eutelsat was among the companies in talks with the Italian government to provide secure communications.
In January, Bloomberg News reported that Italy was in advanced talks with SpaceX for a deal to provide communications services for the Italian military and direct-to-cell satellite service during emergencies, which was later confirmed by Meloni’s office. However, Trump’s decisions this week to halt military assistance to Ukraine and restrict intelligence sharing with Kyiv have highlighted the fast-changing relationship between the U.S. and the European Union.
Starlink has become an essential service for the Ukrainian military in its three-year war with Russia after much of the country’s communications infrastructure has been knocked out. Strained ties between Washington and Kyiv after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit on Friday descended into a shouting match with Trump and Vice President JD Vance have raised fears that the service could be disrupted.
Meloni and her entourage have privately been staggered by the magnitude of attacks on long-established tenets of foreign affairs by Trump and his new administration, Bloomberg reported in February, citing people with knowledge of their thinking.
Trump has challenged other traditional U.S. allies as he seeks an economic and diplomatic reset of America’s place in the world, including sparking a tariff war with Canada and Mexico.
Meloni has been positioning herself as a bridge between Europe and the U.S. administration and has a long-standing rapport with Musk. She attended Trump’s inauguration in January and recently headlined an annual gathering of conservatives that Trump and Musk attended.
Shares in France’s Eutelsat, which operates the second-biggest portfolio of low-earth orbit satellites after Starlink, have soared this week to the highest since 2022 as EU politicians pledged to boost defence spending. They rose a record 120 per cent to €7.85 on Wednesday.