ROME: US Vice President JD Vance met with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday (Apr 18), 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 per cent 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.
