Arriving a few minutes late, Giorgia Meloni then takes her seat at the NATO leaders' dinner, sharing the same table as Donald Trump. They may not be sitting next to each other, but it's still their first meeting after days of tension between Palazzo Chigi and the White House . "Cordid relations," she'll say after the meeting, and the tension doesn't seem to have thawed after the American president's latest attack, even from Ankara.
The government's stance remains silent. "We didn't comment yesterday, and we won't today," they said from Palazzo Chigi. There was no response either to the meme circulating in recent days or to Trump's remarks that Meloni "I like her, she's a good person, but she wasn't there for us" during the Iran crisis. The strategy is to avoid a back-and-forth and postpone any assessment until after the summit's plenary session.
The prime minister leaves Rome while Trump is already in Ankara and monopolizes the spotlight, returning to criticize his European allies. "I like Giorgia Meloni, she's a good person, but our relationship has deteriorated because she refused to help us. She didn't want to get involved in the Strait of Hormuz, and I think she made a mistake," Trump says. The same, he adds, applies to Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. "We don't need help after the war is over. Well, we don't need help in general, fundamentally. We help them, but we're not sure they'll help us. Germany has turned its back on us, Italy has turned its back on us. And that's fine, that's fine. But you know, why are we spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and they're not there for us, they're turning their backs on us, they're looking the other way? That's what they did," he thunders from Turkey.
Meloni arrived at the presidential palace a few minutes late, after host Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the other leaders. According to Turkish media, the country's vice president received her. At the dinner, the prime minister sat at the same table as the American president, along with Erdogan, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Shortly before the dinner, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who arrived in Ankara with Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. This signaled that, regardless of the U.S. president's statements, the channels of cooperation between Rome and Washington remain open.
Within the government, however, there remains a certain mistrust toward the tycoon. His words are not interpreted as an opening, but as a form of pressure on the prime minister, the only leader explicitly mentioned by Trump during the press conference in Ankara.
The US president also explained the reason for the cooling of relations with Meloni: Italy's position on the war in Iran. According to Washington, Italy's willingness to contribute to mine clearance in the Strait of Hormuz once a ceasefire was reached wasn't enough. Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken, a Flemish nationalist, stepped in to defend the prime minister: "We need Trump as an ally, but don't touch Meloni. She's the queen of the center-right in Europe. She's the leader."
To defuse the situation, Turkey also focused on so-called "food diplomacy." Erdogan and his wife organized a dinner inspired by Turkish culinary traditions, with round tables to foster dialogue among all the leaders. "Between Meloni and Trump, there's no room for controversy, certainly not on the Italian side. There are too many geopolitical and international issues at stake," observed Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Among the summit's central themes is strengthening NATO's southern flank, which was included in the final declaration thanks in part to Italian pressure. This dossier focuses primarily on Libya, where the United States considers Rome a key interlocutor. Meloni has also long sought an agreement with Ankara, which plays a stabilizing role in the North African country and shares significant energy interests with Italy.
On the Ukrainian front, however, a gap remains between Rome and Washington. Italy has not joined the PURL program for the purchase of American weapons for Kiev and continues to focus its support primarily on the energy sector.
A new summit of the Coalition of the Willing, convened by Emmanuel Macron, is scheduled for Monday evening in Paris. Meloni's participation has not yet been confirmed, while that of President Sergio Mattarella is certain. He will also attend the July 14th celebrations on the Champs-Élysées, where a flagship group of the Italian Armed Forces will also march. This signals Rome's desire to strengthen the European axis with France, while maintaining open dialogue with Washington.
(Unioneonline)