From Rome with ambition: Meloni hosts global leaders

Driving the news. In the coming weeks, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is set to host high-profile international visits in Rome that underline Italy’s growing global ambitions, including King Charles III, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and US Vice President JD Vance.

• King Charles III, accompanied by Queen Camilla, will make state visits to both the Holy See and Italy between 7 and 10 April.
  • Notably, the King will be the first British Monarch to address a joint session of the Italian Parliament.
• On 16 and 17 April, an intergovernmental summit between Italy and Turkey will be held in Rome, with President Erdoğan in attendance.
• As Bloomberg reported, US Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to visit between 18 and 20 April, although the precise dates remain to be confirmed.

Expert’s take. Teresa Coratella, Deputy Head of the Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, commented on Meloni’s ambitious international agenda:

• “The international agenda of Prime Minister Meloni is very ambitious and clearly aimed at carving a key role for Italy and keeping strategic partners central to Italian economic and political interests.”
  • However, she cautioned, “This action plan lacks an important framework, that of Europe. Such bilateral efforts should not occur in isolation from the priorities and strategy of the EU as a key actor.”
• Coratella stressed that Italy, as a member of the EU and G7, should work to ensure that these initiatives strengthen its political and economic ties and the entire European system.
  • “If Rome focuses solely on immediate, sectoral successes, this approach might work in the short term. However, in this period of profound political and security crisis in the EU, we need a long-term strategy that benefits not only Brussels but Rome itself.”