US-EU tensions, Meloni claims the Atlantic line of dialogue and responsibility

When Giorgia Meloni on Sunday evening he summons journalists to the fifteenth floor of the Lotte hotel, in the heart of Seoul, partially changing the official program of the mission, the feeling becomes clear that the Asian trip is not ending as a simple sequence of bilateral meetings. That press point partly becomes a summary of a trip that has two distinct but strongly intertwined levels: if on the one hand the objective of the diplomatic tour is from the beginning the strengthening of cooperation with increasingly strategic partners for Italy in East Asia and the hunt for investments, on the other hand “the instability which has now become a system” – to quote the Prime Minister’s words – requires the immediate need to take a position on international dossiers who are redesigning global balances, from Greenland to Gaza.

The stop in Oman

The mission had begun a few days earlier with a short stop in Oman, useful above all to reiterate the Italian role in the Gulf and to strengthen an already consolidated diplomatic and energy channel. But the political and economic heart of the trip was on Japan and South Korea, two industrial and technological powers that Palazzo Chigi considers decisive for the future of Italian and European industry.

Italy and Japan

In Tokyo, Meloni thus worked on strengthening aalliance that the Italian government defines as “natural” between two advanced countries, united by the centrality of exports, the dependence on global supply chains and the need to defend strategic high-tech sectors. Dialogues favored by the great relationship born recently, but now consolidated with the Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. In the talks with the Japanese leader, the message was clear: Italy looks toIndo-Pacific not as if at a distant theatre, but as if at one fundamental hub for its industrial competitiveness.

Semiconductors, advanced research, economic security and industrial cooperation were the pillars of a dialogue that goes beyond the symbolic dimension of the partnership; 48 hours of meetings, followed by understandings and agreements made simpler by the much more relaxed climate between Rome and Tokyo and by a new ‘manga’ friendship for Giorgia Meloni with the iron lady of the Rising Sun.

The new clash between the EU and Trump

However, it is here in Seoul that the mission has further expanded its scope. Not so much because South Korea is one of the global chip giants, of advanced electronics and artificial intelligence, sectors in which Italy has long been trying to connect capital, skills and production chains, but – needless to say – for the new clash between Donald Trump and most EU countries. The tycoon, after the continuous and growing threat of wanting to take over – if necessary also militarily – the Greenlandon Sunday announces new duties for those countries that have decided to send troops to the island and fuels the emergence of a rift between Washington and Europe. It is at that moment that Meloni once again stands as the only European leader to speak with President Donald Trump, now increasingly on a collision course with the EU.

He makes it clear that he is against duties, takes a stand against the strategy of the number one in the White House, but adds that he has spoken directly with him and is working to avoid an escalation that would risk damaging everyone. For its part, defining a possible increase in duties as “a mistake” is in fact not just an economic evaluation, but a political signal that also reaches Brussels from Seoul: Italy does not intend to fuel a spiral of conflict between allies. From Seoul the prime minister therefore tries to present herself as the last bridge left standing between Europe and the United States, claiming an Atlantic line of dialogue and responsibility.

Agreements and memorandums were signed in Seoul

But if the international context forcefully bursts into the narrative of the mission, it does not undermine its initial objective, namely strengthening dialogue with partners in this area, bringing home results on theexports and raw materials. All topics addressed today by Meloni in the Blue House in Seoul, with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, followed by the signing of agreements and memoranda that aim to strengthen cooperation on semiconductors, emerging technologies, aerospace and critical materials, and with the declared objective of building more resilient supply chains and reducing dependencies.

Immediately after the meeting at the Blue House and the signing of the agreements, the prime minister left for Rome, closing the Asian mission, and ready to face a politically delicate phase. On Thursday she will be called to sit at the table of the extraordinary European Council convened by President Antonio Costa, entirely dedicated to the latest tensions between the EU and the United States. A crucial step in which Italy will try to assert its line: defense of European interests, yes, but without breaking the dialogue with Washington.

Finally, a possible participation in the Davos Economic Forum is on the horizon – a hypothesis that still remains uncertain – where Trump, meanwhile, is expected to meet the president of the EU Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, on Wednesday, the first face to face after the tensions that exploded over the weekend.