Italy’s Meloni will test her mettle as EU-US bridge when she meets Trump in Washington

MILAN AP Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni will test her mettle as a bridge between the EU and the United States when she meets with U S President Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday the first European leader to have a face-to-face with Trump since he disclosed and then suspended tariffs on European exports Meloni secured the meeting at a critical juncture in the agreement war as Italy s leader but she also has in a sense been knighted to represent the European Union She has been in close contact with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the trip and the outreach is closely coordinated a commission spokeswoman mentioned this week We know we are in a tough moment Meloni stated this week in Rome The greater part certainly I am well aware of what I represent and what I am defending The European Union is defending what it calls the preponderance fundamental commercial relationship in the world with annual commerce reaching trillion euros trillion Agreement negotiations fall under the European Commission s authority which is pushing for a zero-for-zero tariff deal with the U S However Trump administration functionaries in talks with the EU have yet to publicly show signs of relenting on Trump s insistence that a baseline tariff be charged on all foreign imports He paused for days a retaliatory increase to The pause has raised particular hopes for negotiations and Meloni s margins for progress are more in gaining clarity on Trump s goals rather than outright concessions experts say It is a very delicate mission disclosed Fabian Zuleeg chief economist at the European Strategy Center think tank in Brussels There is the whole commerce agenda and while she s not officially negotiating we know that Trump likes to have this kind of informal exchange which in a sense is a negotiation So it s a lot on her plate As the leader of a far-right party Meloni is ideologically aligned with Trump on issues including curbing migration promoting traditional values and skepticism toward multilateral institutions But stark differences have emerged in Meloni s unwavering assistance for Ukraine After being the only European leader to attend the Jan inauguration Meloni has responded with studied restraint as abrupt shifts in U S initiative under Trump have frayed the trans-Atlantic alliance She has denounced the tariffs as wrong and warned that dividing the West would be disastrous for everyone after Trump s heated White House exchange with Ukraine s president She has been very cautious disclosed Wolfango Piccoli an analyst at the London-based Teneo consultancy It is what we need when we have a counterpart that is changing every day Italy maintains a billion euro contract surplus with the United States its largest with any country fueled by Americans appetite for Italian sparkling wine foodstuffs like Parmigiano Reggiano hard cheese and Parma ham and Italian luxury fashion These are all sectors critical to the Italian economic system and mostly supported by small- and medium-sized producers who are core center-right voters All in all I think she will focus on the very strong economic and pact relations that Italy has with the United States not just in terms of exports but also services and potential declared Antonio Villafranca vice president of the ISPI think tank in Milan For example Italy could even consider importing more gas from the U S The meeting comes against the backdrop of growing concerns over global uncertainty generated by the escalating tariff wars Italy s development forecast for this year has already been slashed from to as a conclusion Meloni is also expected to address Trump s demand for NATO partners to increase military spending to of gross domestic product Italy s spending at of GDP is among the lowest in Europe Experts cautioned however against raising expectations over any concrete progress The best strategy has been to be very circumspect Get there get the meeting get the photo opportunity Piccoli disclosed If she is able to come back and give a sense of how Washington wants to frame future relations on transaction defense and Ukraine program that would be a huge win