Italian premier reaffirms commitment to Western unity at G7 in first meeting with US president since falling-out over Iran war and Pope Leo XIV dispute.
Giorgia Meloni and US President Donald Trump held a “clarification” meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian on Monday evening, Italian government sources said on Tuesday. It was their first known encounter since a series of public clashes that strained one of Europe’s most closely watched bilateral relationships.
The meeting, described by sources as a “useful exchange,” took place during the leaders’ dinner on the shores of Lake Geneva. Sources said Meloni reiterated to Trump the principle that Western unity was “absolutely necessary in this moment of great international crisis,” and that both sides agreed on this. Further opportunities for dialogue between the two leaders during the summit were also anticipated.
For Meloni, arriving in Evian with a political agenda more sensitive than the other leaders’, the G7 represented her first opportunity to meet Trump again in a multilateral setting following months of mounting tension.
From inauguration guest to persona non grata
The deterioration in relations between Rome and Washington has been striking. Meloni had been among Trump’s closest European allies — notably, she was the only European leader invited to his inauguration last year. The relationship soured, however, over Italy’s conduct during the US war against Iran. Trump publicly accused Meloni of not being helpful and said she had changed, a pointed rebuke from a president who rarely criticises those he once counted as friends.
At the centre of the row was Italy’s refusal to grant the United States permission to use an air base in Sicily for raids during the conflict. Meloni further drew Trump’s ire by publicly defending Pope Leo XIV after the president attacked the pontiff as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” following the Pope’s criticism of the war.
“I was abandoned”
If Monday’s formal meeting set the diplomatic tone, a lighter moment on Tuesday provided the most-watched exchange of the summit’s margins. As Meloni and European Council President Antonio Costa exchanged remarks about the friendship between the Italian prime minister and the American president, Trump smiled and said: “I was abandoned.”
Meloni’s response was immediate. “No, you were not,” she replied, laughing.
The joke will do little to resolve the substantive disagreements between Rome and Washington. But it offered a signal that both sides are willing to move past the most acrimonious phase of their dispute, at least for now.
The Monday meeting was brief and helped clear the air, according to people familiar with the Italian government’s thinking. Whether the warmth visible on the summit’s sidelines translates into a durable rapprochement remains to be seen — Italy’s position on Iran-related military cooperation has not changed, and the question of Pope Leo XIV’s relationship with Washington has not gone away.
