ROME: US Vice President JD Vance met with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday, ahead of celebrating Easter at the Vatican and a meeting with the pope’s right-hand man.
Meloni shares conservative views with Vance and President Donald Trump, whom she met in Washington just a day before on a charm offensive aiming for a US-EU tariffs deal.
Trump’s threatened tariffs could have a major impact on Italy, the world’s fourth-largest exporter, which sends around 10 percent of its exports to the United States.
The trip is also Vance’s first return to Europe since delivering a combative speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, when he lambasted the EU’s members on culture war issues while calling for the bloc to “step up” in managing its own security.
In brief comments to the press at Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister’s office, Vance said he was “looking forward to spending Easter here”.
“This is a place that was built by people that love humans and love God,” he said, adding that it “really lifts up the human spirit”.
Along with an update on trade negotiations with the European Union, Vance said he would discuss with Meloni the negotiations involving Ukraine and Russia, saying “we have some interesting things to report on, of course in private”.
“I won’t prejudge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close,” he said.
Later Friday, Vance will attend Good Friday mass at St Peter’s Basilica, according to the White House.
On Saturday, he is due to speak with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, the second-highest official at the Holy See after Pope Francis.
The 40-year-old Vance, who converted to Catholicism in his mid-30s, travelled to Rome with his wife and three children, with the family due to celebrate Easter at St Peter’s on Sunday.
Meloni was the first leader from Europe to visit Trump since he imposed 20 percent tariffs on EU exports, which he has since suspended for 90 days.
The two leaders struck a warm tone Thursday during a working lunch and a meeting in the Oval Office, with Trump hailing the 48-year-old Italian premier as “fantastic”.
Casting herself as the only European who could de-escalate Trump’s trade war, Meloni highlighted their conservative common ground and said she wanted to “make the West great again”.
Meloni’s decision to personally intercede with Trump has caused some disquiet among EU allies, who are concerned that her visit could undermine the bloc’s unity.
While Trump expressed confidence about an eventual deal with the 27-nation bloc he has accused of trying to “screw” the United States, he said on Thursday that he was in “no rush”.
Russia’s war in Ukraine meanwhile remained a touchy subject between the US and Italian leaders.
Meloni has been a staunch ally of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky since Russia’s invasion in 2022, most recently calling Moscow’s Palm Sunday attack on the city of Sumy “horrible and vile”.
Trump however has stunned allies with a pivot toward Moscow and repeated attacks on Zelensky, whom he and Vance berated in a televised Oval Office meeting in February.
Trump said with Meloni beside him that “I don’t hold Zelensky responsible but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” adding that he was “not a big fan” of the Ukrainian leader.
