On Thursday, during an institutional visit to the United States, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with American President Joe Biden. Meloni was received at the White House and welcomed by Biden with a hug. The meeting did not end with particular announcements, if not a generic indication of new economic collaborations, but was characterized by a very friendly atmosphere. Affinities and points of contact have been underlined by both sides, starting from the common support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion, while themes in which the government policies of Meloni and Biden are more distant have been avoided, such as defense of the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Biden began by saying to Meloni: “we have become friends”, a remarkable thing considering that last autumn the American president, as well as several other Western leaders, had indicated the victory of the Brothers of Italy in the Italian elections as a reason for concern in the context of a general shift towards the extreme right in many European countries. At the time, the US government let it be known that it would evaluate the work of the Italian one along the way, before taking definitive positions on the Brothers of Italy and on the new right-wing government in Italy.
The friendly climate of the meeting is quite surprising even taking into account Meloni’s positions regarding US politics: in the past the president had on several occasions expressed her closeness to the Republican party and especially to Donald Trump, the main political opponent of Biden. These are positions that Meloni reiterated during Thursday’s meeting, albeit softening the tone: “I have an evident harmony with the Republican party but this does not prevent me from having an excellent relationship with Biden”. he said.
During Thursday’s meeting, Meloni’s strong “Atlanticism” was underlined on several occasions, ie his firm support for NATO policies. This shift was not taken for granted: although Meloni had long since begun to move away from the more pro-Russian positions of his allies (Lega and Forza Italia), ensuring that he would keep foreign policy in line with that of the previous government led by Mario Draghi, in the past he had also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin on several occasions: doubts about his real intentions therefore remained for some time, after the victory of the Brothers of Italy in the elections.
However, Thursday’s meeting concluded with a promise by both sides to commit themselves to developing common economic projects, especially relating to renewable energy and measures to combat climate change. Meloni also spoke with Biden about his plans to try to regulate and limit migratory flows from North Africa, despite the fact that the approach to the issue of migration is an issue on which the two leaders seem to be quite distant.
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Another issue on which there was some expectation was the decision that Italy will have to take within the year regarding the potential renewal of the agreement that the first Conte government had signed with China, and which had been much discussed . The agreement placed Italy within the “Belt and Road Initiative”, the large project promoted by China which provides for large investments in infrastructure all over the world, often also called the “New Silk Road”. It had been signed in 2019 and Italy had been the only G7 country to join it, worrying several of its allies including the United States, whose relations with China have progressively worsened in recent years. If the agreement will not come canceled at least three months before expiry, a decision desired by the Biden government, it will be renewed automatically.
In the press conference, which was not held jointly, Meloni said that he had discussed the issue with Biden, but that he had not received any impositions from the United States: the strengthening of trade ties between Italy and the United States from an anti-Chinese perspective could be an further factor of rapprochement between the two governments.