Giuseppe Conte from Trump. Italy as a privileged interlocutor for resuming US-EU relations

After the President of the EU Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will be in Washington on Monday for his first official visit to the United States. Jean Claude Juncker and Trump have reached an agreement in principle on trade that according to sources of the Presidency of the Council will need to be followed in order to realize the common points put on the negotiating table. Giuseppe Conte is certainly in a position appreciated by the US president as he represents a sovereign government with Matteo Salvini as a strong leader. Matteo Salvini was the only Italian leader to openly support, in November 2016, the sovereign candidate 'Donald Trump. In fact, the US ambassador in Rome, after the outcome of the Italian political elections, summoned, first of all, the leader of the League to Villa Taverna. President Trump relies heavily on Italy's role in the chessboard of the old continent since the disagreements of recent times have distanced him and not a little from Germany and France. Awareness of the role of the moment gives Giuseppe Conte an extra chance to become the future interlocutor in relations between America and the European Union, relaunching Italy as a protagonist to re-establish dialogue and cooperation between the two continents. There are many dossiers on the agenda, from the debate on the future of NATO to collaboration in peace missions, from the game on trade duties to the very delicate one of the construction of the TAP, the gas pipeline that in Italy someone would like to make become a sort of political bargaining chip for definitively stop the works of the Turin-Lyon high-speed railway. At Corriere della Sera, Conte expressed his optimism before meeting the American tycoon, “I think Trump wants to help Italy. And on my next trip to Washington we will try together to figure out how. The relationship is good, and the fact that I have an M5S-Lega majority increases the potential affinity ”. So many problems that will be addressed: collaboration on the immigration front, stabilization of Libya and the Mediterranean, relations with Russia, considered by Italy and the US as the only solution to the main international crises. The US administration has launched, through some notes from the State Department, an appeal to the Italian government to complete the project of the Tap (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) pipeline to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. On the Tap gas pipeline, however, opinions within the yellow-green government are fluctuating, as is the case with the Tav and the Muos. The M5S has always fought against the Tap, calling it a "stupid" work, of the opposite opinion, however, the League.

 

Giuseppe Conte from Trump. Italy as a privileged interlocutor for resuming US-EU relations

| ITALY |