Italy's relationship with the United States needs to be managed "maturely", foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday after US president Donald Trump directed disparaging remarks last week at premier Giorgia Meloni, causing a high-profile bilateral business forum in Miami and a visit to to the US by Tajani to be cancelled.
"We need to tone it down and work. Foreign policy is not made with insults and the latest unmotivated attacks, to which we were justified in responding," Tajani said in an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper. "Being a loyal ally of the US as we are, does not mean giving up our sovereignty: we are subjects of no one. We now need to avoid all this turning into political, economic, and diplomatic damage: Italy and Europe need a solid relationship with the USA, just as the USA needs Europe and Italy," he said.
