(AFP) – US Vice President JD Vance on Friday met Italy’s Giorgia Meloni in Rome and later prayed at the Vatican during an Easter visit against a backdrop of transatlantic trade tensions. Vance’s visit, which also includes a meeting with the pope’s right-hand man, comes a day after Meloni met President Donald Trump and his number two in Washington in a quick trip aimed at securing a favourable tariffs deal.
A US-EU trade war and 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 Rome trip marks Vance’s first return to Europe since delivering a combative speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, when he lambasted EU members on culture war issues while calling for the bloc to “step up” in managing its own security.
But Vance tweeted after his visit Friday that he had had a “great meeting” with Italy’s premier, a far-right leader who shares many of his conservative views. “I’m grateful every day for this job, but particularly today where my official duties have brought me to Rome on Good Friday,” said Vance, who is Catholic.
In brief comments to the press ahead of his meeting, Vance said he would update Meloni on negotiations with the European Union over trade. He would also brief her on negotiations involving Ukraine and Russia, and “some of the things that have happened even in the past 24 hours,” he said. “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. His statement appeared to contradict more sceptical comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in Paris on Friday said the United States was prepared to “move on” were it to decide peace was not “doable in the short term”.
Later on Friday, Vance, his wife and three children attended the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord, a liturgy for Good Friday, at St Peter’s Basilica. Following the two-hour service, the family was given a private tour of Castel Sant’Angelo, the former mausoleum of the Roman emperor Hadrian which the popes later converted into a fortified castle.
On Saturday, Vance is scheduled to speak with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who as the Vatican’s secretary of state is the second-highest official at the Holy See after Pope Francis. It is not clear whether Vance, who converted to Catholicism in his mid-30s, also plans to attend Easter mass with his family in St Peter’s Square on Sunday.
– ‘Make the West great again’ – 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”.
In a subsequent joint statement, they said Trump had accepted an invitation for an official visit to Italy “in the very near future”, with a US-Europe meeting on the same occasion being considered. 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 had caused some disquiet among EU allies, concerned 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 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. Trump, however, has stunned allies with a pivot towards Moscow and repeated attacks on Zelensky, whom he and Vance berated in a televised Oval Office meeting in February.
With Meloni seated beside him, Trump on Thursday said “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.
– Alexandria SAGE
© 2024 AFP
