Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she sees no threat to relations between Italy and the United States, despite her recent public dispute with US President Donald Trump.
Speaking at an event hosted by the newspaper La Verità in Rome on Tuesday, the Italian prime minister said that cooperation between the two countries rests on a long and very solid history that will not be called into question by a dispute on social media.
Tensions between Trump and Meloni flared in recent days after the US president claimed that Meloni had "begged" him for a photo at the recent G7 summit in the French town of Évian, and that he had felt sorry for her.
Meloni responded sharply, describing the claim as "completely fabricated." In a further exchange on social media, she rebuked him again.
Asked about the dispute, Meloni said she was genuinely annoyed by the row but had no intention of inflaming it further. She added: "I believe our bilateral cooperation with the United States must return to normal."
Meloni also stressed that she had no intention of changing the course of Italy's foreign policy. She said: "Italian foreign policy will remain as it has been for 80 years — maintaining close relations with the United States and the European Union, because that is what the strength of the West is built on."
She added that, regardless of the recent altercation, cooperation between the two countries had also been going well in recent weeks and months.