Vance attends Olympic skating, then meets with Italian Prime Minister Meloni

MILAN (AP) — Vice President JD Vance met Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — one of the Trump administration's closer allies in Europe — during his trip to Italy for the Olympic Games.

Vance is on a weeklong visit that combines sports and diplomacy, meeting with Meloni at a time when U.S. relations with Europe have become increasingly strained under President Donald Trump, who has shaken up the rules-based order that has been at the center of U.S. foreign policy since World War II.

The vice president started his day at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, watching the opening session of the three-day team figure skating competition with his family and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Vance then headed to the Prefettura di Milano, a Milan palace now used as a municipal building, for a bilateral meeting with Meloni that lasted about an hour and was followed by a closed-door lunch.

Meloni began her remarks in Italian. After a moment, she switched to English, joking that Vance probably didn’t understand what she had been saying.

Vance quipped that he'd been able to learn Italian since last coming to Italy. He hadn't. His last visit was when he saw Meloni in Rome after meeting with Pope Leo XIV in May.

“I was saying that I’m happy to have you here to have the occasion to talk about our wonderful bilateral relation,” Meloni said.

The prime minister said they'd discuss several topics of bilateral cooperation, but also mentioned meeting at the Olympics, which she called “events that tell about values that keep together Italy and the U.S.” and “western civilization.”

While Meloni was speaking, Tilman Fertitta, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, walked in and greeted Vance, mentioning that, “It’s hard to get around." The security measures involved in staging the Olympics have meant traffic closures and other logistical headaches.

Meloni has cultivated a close relationship with Trump, visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in early January 2025, even before he took office for his second term. At the time, he called her a “fantastic woman” and the two have since praised each other.

More recently, however, Meloni has sided with top U.S. allies in Europe in opposing Trump's push to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

During the short portion of the meeting where reporters were present, the two leaders only exchanged pleasantries. Vance and Rubio did not answer shouted questions about talks between the U.S. and Iran.

“In the spirit of the Olympics friendship, competition — competition based on rules — and just coming together around shared values, we’re very, very thrilled to be here, and we’ll have a great conversation about number of topics,” Vance told Meloni. He added that he'd been excited to go to the Olympics in Milan “pretty much since I became vice president.”

Weissert reported from Washington.