Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has chosen the African meeting over the Munich Security Conference. According to La Repubblica this is not the first time she has skipped the event, and this time she has done so to avoid a clash with the United States amid a general cooling of transatlantic relations.
„While the continent's leading European leaders discuss Ukraine and strained US-EU relations, the head of the Italian government is moving 7,000 kilometers away from the Bavarian summit in Addis Ababa,“ the newspaper writes. According to the newspaper, the Italian prime minister has been invited by the organizers of the German conference to speak immediately after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
„Not participating in the German event allows Meloni to distance herself from the discomfort of Merz's recent statements regarding the United States, which just the day before announced a rift between the two sides of the Atlantic in a speech. Meloni, on the other hand, emphasizes “the unity of the West“ at every opportunity“, the authors note.
Commenting on the German chancellor's statements from Addis Ababa, where Meloni is participating in a session of the African Union Assembly, the publication notes that “the current moment is challenging for international relations in general and particularly challenging for relations between the United States and Europe“. She agreed with Merz's statement that Europe needs more independence and autonomy on security issues. "But we must work for greater integration between Europe and the United States, based on what unites us. But that does not mean that Europe should not regain its role as a serious geopolitical player," Meloni was quoted as saying by La Repubblica.