NAPLES: The global security framework is growing increasingly precarious due to competing world visions, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told his peers at a meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies that kicked off in Naples on Saturday.

The G7 gathering marks the group’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense and comes as the West grapples with the Russian advance in Ukraine and a spiraling conflict in the Middle East between Israel and its regional enemies.

There is also deep concern over China’s military activities around Taiwan and heightened tensions along the border of North and South Korea.

“The brutal Russian aggressions in Ukraine and the indeed critical situation in Middle East, combined with the profound instability of sub-Saharan Africa and the increasing tension in the Indo-Pacific region, highlight a deteriorated security framework,” Crosetto said in his opening speech.

Italy holds the G7 rotating presidency for 2024. The group also includes the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Japan, with European Union and NATO representatives also attending the gathering in the southern Italian city.

Warning that forecasts for near future “cannot be positive,” Crosetto said tensions were fueled by “a common driver: the confrontation between two different, perhaps incompatible, visions of the world.”

On the one side are the countries and organizations that believe in a world order based on international law, said Crosetto, who is a prominent member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party.

“On the other side, (there are) those who systematically disrespect democracy to pursue their objectives, including by a deliberate use of military force.”

Before the meeting, Crosetto welcomed photographers holding a model of a tiny red animal horn, a symbol of good luck according to time-honored Neapolitan tradition.