Italy PM Meloni to host US VP Vance on April 18: office

U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives to board Air Force Two after touring the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, March 28. Reuters-Yonhap

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will host U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Rome on April 18, a day after she visits U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, her office said on Sunday.

Vance is a convert to Catholicism and according to Italian media he will also visit the Vatican on what is Good Friday ahead of Easter Sunday, the most holy celebration in the religion.

The meetings come as Trump's slew of tariffs — which he has since paused — has caused chaos across the world's stock markets while leaving the United States' traditional allies scrambling for answers.

Meloni, head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, will fly back and forth across the Atlantic within 48 hours to meet both the U.S. president and his vice president.

Vance's visit comes three weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini — head of the rival far-right League party — held a telephone conversation with Trump's deputy.

A fortnight ago, Meloni declared herself in agreement with Vance's criticism of Europe as a continent where freedom of speech and democracy are both in retreat.

On the subject of Meloni's visit to Washington, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Sunday that "transatlantic relations are a priority of our foreign policy". (AFP)