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He arrives a few minutes late, then Giorgia Meloni sits at the leaders’ dinner at the same table as Donald Trump. They are not next to each other, but it is the long-awaited intersection after days of high tension. And the frost does not seem to have subsided after the latest thrust made by the US president also in Ankara. This can be understood in the few words that the Prime Minister utters in front of journalists when she returns to the hotel late in the evening. «Cordial relations», he replies about Trump. Has there been a clarification after the insults of the last few days? “I’ve already answered you,” he cuts short. The line now remains to no longer comment on the tycoon’s words, then we will see after the plenary scheduled for this morning.
The prime minister takes off from Rome while in Ankara for a couple of hours Trump has already begun to take center stage, reiterating his criticisms of her, but in a softer way. “We didn’t comment yesterday, we won’t do it today”, the line from Palazzo Chigi. Just as there was no reaction to the meme about the restraining order, we are not upset by the “I like her, she’s a good person but she wasn’t there for us” about Iran. No to the ping pong of declarations and comments, in short, according to the strategy that was confirmed during the two-hour flight. The prime minister arrives at the presidential palace a few minutes late, after the host Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed all the other guests, Trump last. According to local media, it is the Turkish vice president who welcomes her.
Tajani meets Rubio, dialogue with the United States continues
Shortly before she sits at the table with the US president (but also Erdogan, Mark Rutte, Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer), Antonio Tajani, who arrived in Ankara with his defense colleague Guido Crosetto, has a meeting with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The signal that, beyond the presidential attacks, we continue to collaborate. Distrust towards the tycoon remains. According to the little that filters out from the government, his words are not read as a more conciliatory message, but rather as a strategy of “insistence” towards the prime minister, the only leader explicitly mentioned in the press conference in Ankara.
Trump also explained the reason why the relationship was “broken”, the Italian posture in the face of the war in Iran. And the willingness to participate in the demining of Hormuz once the ceasefire was reached, a distant scenario in light of the latest attacks. “We need Trump as an ally, but don’t touch Meloni – intervenes the Belgian Defense Minister, the Flemish nationalist Theo Francken -. She is the queen of the centre-right in Europe. She is the leader”.
Erdogan’s “food diplomacy” and Italy’s role in NATO
To deal with the tensions surrounding the summit, the Turks also focused on a sort of ‘food diplomacy’ in the dinner hosted by Erdogan and his wife. Culinary heritage, they explained, as a lever to promote global understanding, and round tables where everyone sits at the same distance. Between Meloni and Trump «there is no room for controversy», claims Matteo Salvini, «certainly not on the Italian side. There are too many geopolitical and international matches.”
Among these there is also the chapter on the defense of NATO’s southern flank, a theme that was included in the final declaration of the summit also thanks to Italian pressure, as diplomatic sources underlined on the eve. And the Libya dossier is central in this perspective, a country in which the Americans consider Italy among the main interlocutors. Meloni has long asked for support from Turkey, which has a stabilizing effect in Libya as well as, like Rome, strong interests in the energy field.
Ukraine, Purl and the Willing summit in Paris
Among the issues that have widened the distances between Rome and Washington is Italy’s failure to join Purl, the program for the purchase of American weapons to be carried out in Kiev. At the moment, Rome’s support for Ukraine is mainly focused on energy supplies, unlike other partners of the coalition of the Willing which will meet on Monday evening in Paris. Meloni’s presence has not yet been confirmed and is expected in the afternoon at a commemoration of Giovanni Falcone in Palermo. The leaders of the Willing are also invited by Emmanuel Macron to the parade the following day, July 14, for the French national holiday.
If there is still a question mark over the prime minister, President Sergio Mattarella will certainly be there. A signal of the importance of the European front for Italy, to be enhanced in line with Paris. Representatives of the armies of the partner countries will parade along the Champs-Élysées together with the French troops. Italy will be there with a flag group, that is, with its own military formation responsible for guarding and transporting the war flags in the institutional bodies. France would also have requested the parade of Italian vehicles.