The vice president of the United States, JD Vance, said this Friday in Rome that he feels “optimistic” about negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine War, in clear contrast to the statements of hours before the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who has warned that Washington considers abandoning the conversations if there are no results in “question of days”, and if not, “pass to something else”. Vance, on the other hand, sees it in another way, as he explained to the press at the beginning of his meeting with the Italian Prime This brutal war. ”vance has landed this Friday in Rome, on a trip that will then take him to India, on a visit that mixes the work with the holidays. Known for his radical Catholicism, after becoming 2019, he wants to spend in the city on Holy Week with his family and attend a religious ceremony. In his words, journalists has been delighted to be in a city that for him is an “inspiration”, because it is a place “built by people who love humanity and love God.” The official visit to Giorgia Meloni has taken place less than 24 hours after having been with her in the White House, in the encounter that the Prime Minister held with Donald Trump on Thursday. This second consecutive appointment reinforces the image of “special relationship”, said Meloni, of the ultra -right leader with the US president. And also with Vance, whom he defended, practically alone in Europe, after his fierce and controversial criticism of the EU last February in Munich, saying that he agreed with him. And he did it again a few weeks ago in an interview with the Financial Times. Meloni went to Washington on Thursday with uncertainty about the result and, although he did not obtain concrete advances in the confrontation with the EU on the tariffs, after all he did not go wrong: he took all the possible praise of Trump and the guarantee that he would somehow reach an agreement with the twenty -seven agreement. Nor was anything about a trip that the American president promised to do to Rome, and that Meloni would like to become a summit with the EU and an encounter with Ursula von der Leyen, whom Trump ninggunea systematically. This Friday, the White House has only confirmed that Trump will travel soon to Rome. Vance has arrived at a half -half of the Palazzo Chigi, headquarters of the presidency of the Italian government, and then has maintained with Meloni a working meal. He confirmed that he will talk to her about the negotiation with the EU about tariffs, but said no more: “We will follow the conversations today.” The second part of the official visit in Rome is in the Vatican, at a time when Pope Francis collides frontally with the Trump administration, and even personally with Vance himself. In an unusual letter addressed to the American bishops published in February, the Pontiff lashed out at the massive deportations of immigrants and theologically corrected some statements of the vice president. Vance will interview this Saturday with the Secretary of State of the Vatican, the Italian cardinal Pietro Parolin. He wanted to see the Pope, but it has not been possible because Francisco is still recovering from his long hospitalization, although he did receive last week the British kings, Carlos and Camila, and these days he already makes apparitions in public, but carefully selects his commitments. It is not ruled out that in the end the Pontiff receives Vance, but for now he is not scheduled. “Peace is not imposed, it is built patiently, day after day, with reciprocal dialogue and respect,” he said about Ukraine conversations. And about the cutting of aids to the cooperation of the USAID Humanitarian Agency and other Trump measures, he stated: “It is clear that the attitude of the current United States administration is very different from what we are accustomed (…). The Holy See always strives to put people in the center, and there are many vulnerable people who suffer greatly, for example, by the cuts to humanitarian aid.” In the Vatican, Vance will not feel the same heat as with Meloni. (Tagstotranslate) United States
