The Prime Minister of Italy, mario draghi, arrived at the White House on Tuesday after receiving the invitation from the president of the United States, Joe Bidento return “the hospitality” that the Italian had shown him in Rome last year and that he formally transferred to him in April during the NATO and EU summits in Brussels.
The official visit between the two leaders, already in person in Washington, had as its objective reaffirm the deep bonds of friendship and the solid association between the United States and Italy”, as the White House had advanced through a statement.
After weeks of numerous phone calls and virtual meetings in coordination with European partners and allies to jointly address the global crisis stemming from the Russian war in Ukraine and the unprecedented sanctions applied against Russiathe conflict aimed to become the main issue on the table of the bilateral meeting.
“Putin believed that he could divide us, but we have all taken a step forward”, Biden said from the Oval Office, before giving the floor to his guest. “A strong European Union is in the interests of the United States. It’s good for everyone,” added the US president.
Draghi took up Biden’s words, emphasizing that “Putin thought he could divide us”, but “We stand together condemning the invasion of Ukraine and sanctioning Russia”. Both world leaders directly pointed to the Russian president as the architect of the current world crisis over the war in Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion of its neighboring country began, the United States and its European allies have maintained a close relationship in continuous coordination in joint decision-making to support the Ukrainian people, providing them with military material to defend themselves and urgent humanitarian assistance in parallel. to severe economic impositions against Russia “for his unprovoked aggression”recalled the White House as context to the meeting.
“The ties between our countries have always been strong”, stressed the president of the Italian Council of Ministers during his first speech at the presidential residence. But for some of the European allies, such as Italy, the decision to support Ukraine with arms has cost a growing internal malaise which could lead to a major political crisis for the Italian government. Criticism among the broad coalition group of the Italian prime minister, especially the 5 Star Movement (M5S), continues to grow for having facilitated, through joint collaboration with the rest of the allied countries, a large arsenal of weapons and other military and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine to defend against Russian attacks and combat the devastating effects of its aggression.
This was made clear, on the Sunday prior to the official visit of the Italian “premier” to the US capital, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, noting that “although Italy must support Ukraine and its Army for legitimate defense, we cannot contemplate supplying weapons to attack Russian soil.”
The bilateral meeting also included other topics of mutual interest, such as the “cooperation to promote world economic prosperityincrease Europe’s energy security and combat climate change”.
This coming June, during several key face-to-face meetings, world leaders will be able to endorse their position of support for Ukraine and reinforce their position of maintaining close collaboration with each other. The United States and its European partners, from the G-7 and from NATO countries will meet in Germany and Spain, respectively, so a part of the conversation between Biden and Draghi also focused in that direction.
The G-7 Summit will take place from June 26 to 28 in the German Alps, while the Spanish capital will host the next NATO Summit in Madrid right after, from June 29 to 30.
Since they took office, Biden and Draghi have held two other bilateral meetings framed in the G-7 Summit in Carbis Bay (England) and the G-20 Summit in Rome, as well as last month in Brussels, in addition to the telephone calls and virtual meetings together with the rest of the European partners on Ukraine .
Along the same lines as the White House, Draghi’s Office issued a statement highlighting “the excellent bilateral relations” between Italy and the United States “to reaffirm the strength of the transatlantic link.” With 17.3 million Italian Americans, according to census figures provided by the Italian Embassy, Italian Americans represent the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States behind Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
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