The ‘celebration’ for the agreement between the EU, the US and Japan on critical minerals and for ‘the solidity of the strategic relationship between Italia and the United States, founded on a historically rooted partnership’, but also the point on the hottest international dossiers: Iran, Gaza, Ukraine and Venezuela. The meeting between Giorgia Meloni and J.D. Vance lasted two and a half hours yesterday in the prefecture in Milan before the start of the Olympic Games, in the presence of the vice-premier and head of the Farnesina, Antonio Tajani, and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The atmosphere is relaxed, the smiles for the benefit of flashes. The echo of Donald Trump’s new provocation – the video posted on Truth with Mr and Mrs Obama superimposed on monkey bodies, later attributed to a staff employee and removed – does not arrive here. “Common views on the main global challenges, starting with energy security and the creation of secure and reliable supply chains for critical minerals,” reads the Palazzo Chigi note circulated at the end of the talks, sealing first of all the agreement signed on Wednesday in Washington on rare earths and critical raw materials.
From Milan, a fresh start is being made to mend the web of relations between Italia and the US that has been frayed by friction in recent weeks over Greenland, the Board of peace for the Strip and then over the contribution of Italian soldiers in Afghanistan played down by Trump, who has never corrected himself. To complicate relations, in addition to the failed bilateral in Davos between Meloni and the tycoon, came the internal controversy over the presence of ICE investigators at the Olympics, a clamour that the premier has already branded as ‘surreal’.
‘We last met with the Vice President in Rome for the inauguration of Pope Leo’s papacy,’ began Meloni, ‘and today we meet again for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. They are two events that tell of a system of values that hold Europe and the United States together, that hold the West together, which is obviously the basis of our cooperation, our friendship, and the future we want to build together’. ‘It is nice to meet you again and to be in this beautiful country,’ Vance reciprocated. ‘We love Italia and Italians. We have many good relations, many economic connections and partnerships.’
Meloni’s appeal to common values evokes the ‘respect’ that the PM had demanded from Trump after the unfortunate outing about European soldiers in Kabul. But the talks serve to restore the bridge, throwing the cracks behind it. On the table (see Il Sole 24 Ore of 3 February) is the evolution of the situation in Iran, on the day on which the US has asked its compatriots to leave the country immediately or ‘keep a low profile’, also announcing new sanctions on Tehran’s oil, and while in Oman talks between the parties for a five-point nuclear plan have been held. But there is also post-Maduro Venezuela, where the Italia government has a twofold objective: to protect the investments and interests of Italian companies by securing a role in the country’s infrastructure reconstruction processes, and to resolve the position of Eni, which must recover the 3 billion receivables for gas extraction. Tajani had guaranteed that they would be the subject of negotiations with Caracas and the US. The dialogue has started.