President Joe Biden is about to satisfy with Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni throughout a visit to Italy from Jan. 9 to 12.
President Joe Biden is about to go to Italy subsequent month in what is probably going the ultimate worldwide journey of his presidency.
This week, the White Home introduced Biden will tour Italy from January 9 to 12, the place he’ll go to with Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
At a Dec. 20 press briefing, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated Biden’s viewers with the Pope will give attention to peace efforts world wide. She stated Biden can even use the go to to “spotlight the power of the U.S.–Italy relationship, thank Prime Minister Meloni for her sturdy management of the G7 over the previous yr, and talk about essential challenges dealing with the world.”
Abroad visits so late in a U.S. presidency aren’t typical. The final president to journey abroad within the closing month of his presidency was fellow one-termer George H.W. Bush, who traveled in early January 1993 to Moscow to signal a nuclear treaty and to Paris for talks with French President François Mitterrand in regards to the Bosnian warfare, in line with State Division historic data.
“I’m all the time very cautious. Something may occur,” she stated.
Persevering with worldwide help for Ukraine could possibly be a key focus of Biden’s go to. The USA, together with its allies and companions within the North Atlantic Treaty Group (NATO) and the Group of Seven (G7) have transferred weapons and assist to Ukraine all through its practically three-year warfare with Russia.
The Russia–Ukraine warfare has been the main geopolitical problem of Biden’s presidency.
In latest months, the G7 companions have been working to organize new loans to Ukraine, utilizing frozen Russian sovereign belongings. These efforts have coincided with Italy’s one-year time period because the rotating G7 president.
Meloni chaired a digital G7 assembly final week the place she and the opposite leaders reaffirmed their help for Ukraine.
Biden’s transfer to consult with Meloni comes amid some uncertainty about how President-elect Donald Trump will handle the continued warfare as soon as he takes workplace. On the 2024 marketing campaign path, Trump emphasised requires negotiations to shortly finish the preventing and has had much less to say about persevering with U.S. help for Ukraine. Trump has additionally criticized the assorted NATO members for not contributing extra to the alliance’s mixed navy efforts.
NATO has set a objective to have its members contribute at the least 2 % of their annual GDP to their navy, however many within the alliance have failed to satisfy this spending goal for years. Whereas many of the NATO allies have elevated their protection spending up to now decade, Italy is among the member nations that has but to satisfy the alliance’s 2 % goal.
Jean-Pierre recommended Biden’s Catholic religion additionally served as a motivating issue for his determination to go to Italy.
“As you understand, he’s a proud Catholic and so that’s one thing that he definitely is trying ahead to; that and having a dialog about peace world wide,” Jean-Pierre stated. “We all know that is a matter that his holiness cares about.”
Biden beforehand met with the Pope on the Vatican in 2021 and once more through the G7 summit in Italy earlier this yr.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
