New Delhi, Apr 21: It would seem all roads lead to Rome, with US Vice President J.D. Vance, along with his family, visiting Rome the day after Italian PM Georgia Meloni visited Washington to spend Good Friday in the eternal city. Vance's visit to Rome and onwards to New Delhi indicates the new importance Rome and New Delhi have in the geopolitical calculus of the White House.

Vance, a catholic, spent Good Friday at the Vatican as well as met with important members of Meloni's administration, including the Deputy Prime Ministers, Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini. The US and Italy will work together to develop the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, one of the greatest economic integration and connectivity projects of this century, connecting partners by ports, railways, and undersea cables and stimulating economic development and integration from India to the Gulf to Israel, to Italy, and onward to the United States, according to the US and Italy joint leaders declaration after the first bilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump and Italian PM Meloni. This Easter weekend was very important as well due to the second round of the US-Iran talks in Rome.

The Trump administration has engaged directly with various belligerent state and non-state players with the objective of achieving an acceptable peace deal. While the first round of talks was held in Muscat, given the Sultanate of Oman's role as the honest broker, the second was held in Rome, also a nod to Meloni's efforts to bring Italy back to the centre of international affairs. The head of Italy's secret service, AISE, Giovanni Caravelli, had also assisted the Prime Minister in solving a particularly complicated case of the arrest of Italian blogger Cecilia Sala during the last days of the Biden administration.

Meloni had made a special, unusual trip to the US to meet with President-elect Trump and the actual Biden administration to solve Sala's incarceration, which was seen as retribution for Italy's arrest of two nationals of Iranian origin on a US arrest warrant. Caravelli and Italy have maintained a strong line of trust and communication with the regime in Tehran. Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad head David Barnea met with US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff on Friday in Paris, before the second round of US-Iran conversations, Dermer is said to have spent Shabbat in Rome presumably to consult with the US Special envoy after the second round of consultations, which have reported to be successful.

Any agreement between the US and Iran will have direct consequences on Israel's security, as well as its war with Hamas, which is widely supported by Iran. Meloni's efforts at pivoting Italy to the center of global geopolitics started immediately after her victory two and a half years ago. Italy had spent decades losing its centrality not only as a G7 economy but also as a centre of power in Europe. Her government withdrew from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Memorandum of Understanding, but managed to maintain a balanced relationship with China.

Early to recognise India's growing importance in the world, New Delhi was Meloni's first bilateral visit to Asia. She was also one of the founding signatories of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) MoU at the G20 in New Delhi in 2023, on her second visit to Delhi in one year. Since she has met often with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the "Melodi" relationship between the leaders has translated into a strategic partnership between both countries. Her early foreign policy choices have now started paying rich dividends. UAE's President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Italy in early 2025, a testament to the reset of the UAE-Italy relationship, which was strained when Meloni was sworn in.

During his visit, both countries signed over 40 agreements, and the UAE announced $40 billion of investment in Italy. Recently, during his visit to India, Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani was accompanied by a large business delegation and an India-Italy science and innovation summit with over 400 companies was held in Delhi.

Declaring Italy's full commitment to the Indo-Mediterranean India-Italy partnership, Tajani announced an IMEC summit in Trieste in 2025 after having recently named an Italian Special Envoy for IMEC, veteran diplomat Francesco Maria Talo.

While critics would point out that Meloni's visit to the US did not have tangible results, the most tangible result was President Trump's acceptance of Meloni's invitation to Rome to discuss and conclude an agreement on tariffs with the European Union.

Rome has slowly become the centre of transatlantic, Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific dialogues with its Prime Minister's ambitions of probably restoring its glory as Caput Mundi. (Vas Shenoy is the Chief Representative for Italy of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and an Italian entrepreneur. Views are personal.)

(IANS)

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