Italy's Meloni scores diplomatic win as ‘bridge builder' by bringing US, EU to same table
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosted a key trilateral meeting in Rome on Sunday, bringing US Vice-President J.D. Vance and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the same table, hoping to usher in what she said could be a 'new beginning'.
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It was a diplomatic score for
Meloni , who has been touted as a potential bridge-builder with the Trump administration, but so far had been unable to provide decisive breakthroughs amid increasingly strained relations with her main European partners.
'I am very proud to host two of the leaders of the EU and the US to start a dialogue,' Meloni told the press ahead of the trilateral meeting, while sitting at a round table with her counterparts.
Italy's premier recalled that she had proposed such an initiative a month earlier in the US capital when she met US President
Donald Trump at the White House.
'I hope that today can be a first meeting and a new beginning,' Meloni said, noting that 'for trade matters' the competence belonged to the EU Commission, but Rome's role was linked to 'the need and the desire to promote dialogue'.
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