President Trump met privately with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday in Rome, the White Home stated, on the sidelines of the funeral service for Pope Francis. It was the primary time the 2 leaders had met in particular person since their televised argument in late February within the Oval Workplace that resulted in a deep breach between the 2 nations.
The White Home didn’t say when the 2 males met, but it surely seems seemingly it was earlier than the funeral began, earlier than the president left for the funeral providers just a little after 9 a.m. in Rome. A White Home spokesman, Stephen Cheung, referred to as it a “very productive dialogue,” however gave no particulars.
The assembly in Rome got here at a important second, simply as the US had introduced a urged plan for a cease-fire in Ukraine’s battle with Russia and a postwar plan that may give Russia efficient management over the entire lands it has illegally seized for the reason that invasion started three years in the past. The plan features a main reversal of American coverage: a proper American recognition that Crimea is Russian territory, even when Ukraine and the remainder of Europe preserve that it stays a part of Ukraine.
Mr. Trump had made clear he wished his first journey abroad on this time period to be to the Center East, beginning with Saudi Arabia, the location of his preliminary go to throughout his first time period in workplace.
However then Pope Francis died. And so Saturday morning, made his option to Vatican Metropolis to pay his respects on the pontiff’s funeral.
Because the ceremonies started, Mr. Trump was surrounded by European leaders he has been denouncing as freeloaders unwilling to pay their share of the continent’s protection, and leaders of the European Union, which he stated was “shaped with a purpose to screw the US.”
On his method over to Italy on Friday, Mr. Trump advised reporters on Air Power One which he was attending the funeral “out of respect” for Francis, noting, “I gained the Catholic vote.”
The president’s schedule doesn’t permit a lot time for conferences, and even many informal “pull asides,” the time period diplomats use for deliberate, transient encounters. Mr. Trump was capable of chat a bit when he arrived.
The seating plan launched by the Vatican had company seated of their group in alphabetical order primarily based on their nation’s title in French. That put Mr. Trump within the entrance row between the leaders of Finland and Estonia, and simply down from President Emmanuel Macron of France.
The schedule requires Mr. Trump to depart Rome lower than three hours after the ceremony begins, and to fly to Newark to spend the night time at his close by golf membership.
Mr. Trump’s each handshake and dialog on the funeral is being watched for that means. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Fee, the manager arm of the European Union, was sitting a number of chairs down from Mr. Trump, and White Home reporters touring with the president, however stored at a substantial distance, reported that the 2 appeared to talk, funereal protocols apart. Prior to now three months, Ms. von der Leyen was conspicuously absent from the leaders visiting the White Home.
