New Delhi: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine and said the conflict has taken the world back to the problems of the 20th century.

Meloni was addressing the Raisina Dialogue as the chief guest and the keynote speaker. The Italian Prime Minister said that the COVID-19 pandemic shook the foundations of international trade and mobility and exposed profound weaknesses and resilience of global supply chains but just as we were trying to recover from the challenges of the pandemic, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine "disrupted global energy prices, and endangered food security and sent waves of inflation across the world."

"As we worked through our country's challenges to recover from the pandemic's devastating impact and restore global trade flows, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine disrupt global energy prices, endangered food security and sent waves of inflation across the world," she said.

She said that before the conflict, the world was facing the problems of the 21st century which were poverty, climate change, managing the impacts of digitalization on information flows and daily life in our societies, and handling the advents of new technology such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence but the Russian aggression took the world back to the tragedies of the 20th century.

"It also puts the risk of global stability, peace, and security which depend on our predictable rule-based international order. Just one year ago we had to face the challenges of the 21st century which were eradicating poverty, addressing climate change, managing the impacts of digitalization on information flows, and daily life in our societies handling the advents of new technology such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence. However, the events of February 24 last year, brought us back to the world of the 20th century," she added.

"I was in Kyiv last week, I witnessed hard reality on the ground and felt the strength of the Ukrainians' national spirit among the destruction," she added.

She said that the Russian attack is not just an act of war or a localised conflict.

She said that it is an act against the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation. It is a violation of the fundamental principle of the global order that enables the international community to thrive.

"We cannot allow the foundations of international law to be threatened. Without this (International law) only military force would be taken into account and every state in the world would be at risk of being invaded by its neighbour. This is not only the interest of the European countries, these are common goals of coexistence among the countries of the world," she added.

While emphasising the word "Provocation" she said, "We cannot sit ideally in the face of this provocation at the heart of the UN charter which threatens to undermine stability across the globe.

She said that in the past, Europe failed to acknowledge the world's problems as its own. "Unfortunately today, Europe's problem has become the world's problem," she added.

"Perhaps in the past few years, our geopolitical stances have not been vocal as they could have. But it is no longer the case. As in globalisation, they said we could save every problem with free trade. We were going to have democracy and richness for everybody. It wasn't like that and we must face what we were wrong," she added.

At the beginning of her speech, while speaking about geography, identity, and cultural and global ties, she said that our identities can sometimes be shaped by provocation also.

"As we look at events around us, our identity shapes. Both individuals' and states' identities can be shaped by geography. At the same time, our shapes could be shaped by provocation."