Macron to visit Meloni after rivalry creates tension on Ukraine, trade

By Michel Rose and Giselda Vagnoni

PARIS/ROME (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, seeking to improve relations amid tensions between the two European leaders over Ukraine, trade and relations with the United States.

Macron is a fervent pro-European who has had a long rapport with Donald Trump, while Meloni is a nationalist with a strong transatlantic tilt who seems more ideologically aligned with the U.S. president. They have advocated different -- even competing - approaches to the new Trump era.

Meloni, whose country has a large trade surplus with the U.S., has sought to keep Europe aligned with the U.S., using the slogan "Make the West great again" in a meeting with Trump in Washington in April. Macron has pushed for the EU to take a more independent approach.

On the Russian war in Ukraine, Meloni has been sceptical about Macron's "coalition of the willing" and a Franco-British plan put forward earlier this year to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement. Sending troops would be deeply unpopular in Italy.

Hostility flared publicly in recent weeks, with officials close to Macron and Meloni privately or openly criticising their respective initiatives over Ukraine or trade.

Meloni was criticised in Italy for not travelling to Kyiv with Macron and the German, British and Polish leaders on May 10 and then for missing a call with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a summit in Albania a few days later.

After Meloni explained her absence by saying the meetings were about sending troops to Ukraine, her government was furious that Macron said publicly that the meetings were about a ceasefire and seemed to equate her justification with "Russian disinformation".

French and Italian officials said Macron had taken the initiative to hold Tuesday's meeting and sought to play down talk of a rift, saying the meeting and a working dinner would be an opportunity for Macron to show "respect" and "friendship".

"The president is available to all of our European partners, whatever the political persuasion may be," an Elysee official told reporters.

The Elysee said the two would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, the Mercosur trade deal and U.S. tariffs, as well as industrial cooperation between the two countries, including Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis, which appointed a new Italian chief executive last month.

Italian officials said the meeting was meant to "lay the foundations for a further strengthening of relations" and added that talks would also address the situation in the Middle East and Libya.

Both Italy and France are worried Russia might boost its presence in eastern Libya, to keep a foothold in the Mediterranean after Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in Syria in December.

"This Macron-Meloni meeting isn't about rekindling Franco-Italian friendship. It's about necessity, not nostalgia," said Francesco Galietti of Rome-based consultancy Policy Sonar, saying the two capitals should find common ground on Libya "fast".

(Writing by Michel RoseEditing by Frances Kerry)