Vance meets Meloni in Rome before Easter at the Vatican

AFP | Rome

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US Vice President JD Vance met with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome yesterday, ahead of celebrating Easter at the Vatican and a meeting with the pope’s righthand 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 yesterday, Vance was set to attend Good Friday mass at St Peter’s Basilica, according to the White House.

Today, 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.