The latest face to face between the two leaders was on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome last October.
Also present at the bilateral Yellen
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is also in the delegation accompanying Biden to the White House meeting with Draghi. Then there are Jon Finer, assistant to the president and first deputy adviser for American national security, Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state, Thomas Smitham, charge d’affaires at the American embassy in Rome, Karen Donfried, assistant to the secretary of state for in European and Eurasian Affairs, Amanda Sloat, Director for Europe of the National Security Council, and Joanna Pritchett, Director of EU Affairs of the Security Council. At the meeting Draghi is accompanied by the Italian ambassador in Washington, Mariangela Zappia, Antonio Funiciello, head of cabinet, Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser, Luigi De Leverano, military adviser, Francesco Giavazzi, economic adviser, Paola Ansuini, spokesperson, and Ferdinando Giuliano , information advisor.
The energy dossier
The contribution that the United States will be able to provide to Italy, diplomatic sources observe, will be fundamental in the medium / long term in the energy diversification policy that Rome is pursuing. The States currently supply Italy with 10% of LNG imports, a volume that the government intends to increase. One of the issues is that of regasification capacities, which Italy plans to increase with the installation of two floating regasifiers, one to be activated already at the beginning of 2023 and the other by the end of next year, as guaranteed by the Minister of Ecological transition Roberto Cingolani.
Military support in Kiev
The Prime Minister guarantees to the ally a new tranche of economic aid to Kiev and a greater commitment of the armed forces in defense of the East flank: the Italian mission in the NATO sphere, as announced by Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini in Parliament, will be extended soon also to Bulgaria and Hungary to “strengthen the posture of deterrence and reassurance”. On arms, on which the stomach ache of the majority who supports the government in Rome is multiplying, Italy is preparing to evaluate a third decree to send “heavier” pieces. Among other things, there was talk of the M109 self-propelled artillery. It is not excluded that there are also Lince light armored vehicles.
The new US budget
Meanwhile, the United States has decided to allocate another 20 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The confrontation between the US president and the Italian premier comes in the aftermath of Biden’s green light for a law to speed up and oil the arms supply to Kiev inspired by a 1941 measure that allowed Roosevelt’s United States to arm the army British against Hitler.