Meloni says she does not regret building ties with Trump despite recent tensions

ANKARA: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday she did not regret her efforts to build a close relationship with US President Donald Trump despite a series of public disagreements that have strained ties between the two leaders.

Speaking in Ankara at the conclusion of a NATO summit attended by Trump, Meloni was asked whether she had second thoughts about the political capital she had invested in the US president.

“No, I absolutely don’t regret anything I’ve done,” she replied.

Meloni was once regarded as one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, but relations have cooled in recent months after several public exchanges and social media posts by the US leader.

Trump’s first public criticism of Meloni came in April after she rebuked him for attacking Pope Leo over the pontiff’s condemnation of the war involving Iran.

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In March, Italy also denied permission for US military aircraft bound for the Middle East to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily.

The Italian leader, who was the only European head of government to attend Trump’s inauguration last year, declined to comment on a social media post shared by Trump on Sunday that showed her looking up at him with the caption: “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”

“I made that political investment because I believe in the unity of the West. It’s not a strategy I adopted with Trump’s arrival, but one I have pursued with all my counterparts,” Meloni said.

She acknowledged that relations between the two leaders had become more difficult but stressed that they still shared common positions on issues such as immigration and opposition to what she described as “woke culture.”

At the NATO summit, Trump adopted a more conciliatory tone, describing Meloni as “a nice person,” while again criticising Italy for not doing more to support recent US military strikes on Iran, which he suggested could resume in the future.