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       West Palm Beach: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday she was ready to work with Donald Trump after making a surprise visit to Florida to meet the president-elect before his inauguration on Jan 20.

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       Meloni, who has led a right-wing coalition in Italy since Oct 2022, met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence late on Saturday in a trip that had not been announced in advance.

       “Lovely evening with Donald Trump who I thank for the welcome,” Meloni posted on social media, with a picture of her and Trump. “Ready to work together,” she added on X, alongside the Italian and US flags.

       No details of the talks were released, but Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said they covered issues including the plight of Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist detai-ned last month in Iran.

       Italian leader is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials

       “Well done Giorgia Meloni for visiting Donald Trump to talk about peace, industrial and commercial cooperation, security, and the freeing of Cecilia Sala,” Salvini posted on X.

       Meloni was greeted with applause after an introduction by the president-elect, according to videos shared on social media by reporters and others.

       “This is very exciting. I’m here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy,” Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd, according to a media pool report.

       “She’s really taken Europe by storm.” Meloni is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials. She has also forged a close relationship with billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump ally.

       Diplomatic bridge

       Tommaso Foti, Italy’s EU and regional affairs minister, said the meeting showed Italy could act as “a diplomatic bridge bet-ween two worlds: the European Union and the USA”.

       Meloni’s trip comes days before she is to meet US President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan 12.

       Trump and Meloni watched a screening of a documentary questioning the criminal investigations and legal scrutiny faced by John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was central to Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

       One of the biggest challenges facing Meloni is the arrest of journalist Sala in Tehran on Dec 19.

       Sala was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in an attack last January that killed three US service members in Jordan. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.

       Meloni was the latest in the handful of foreign leaders who have visited Trump in Florida since the Nov 5 election.

       Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2025