US Vice President JD Vance said Friday he was “optimistic” about ending the Ukraine war, telling Italian premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome he would update her on developments in negotiations.
“I want to update the prime minister on some of the negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and also some of the things that have happened even in the past 24 hours,” Vance said. “I won’t prejudge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close.”
Vance met with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday, ahead of celebrating Easter at the Vatican and a meeting with the pope’s right-hand man.
Meloni shares conservative views with Vance and President Donald Trump, whom she met in Washington just a day before on a charm offensive aiming for a US-EU tariffs deal.
The trip is also Vance’s first return to Europe since delivering a combative speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, when he lambasted the EU’s members on culture war issues while calling for the bloc to “step up” in managing its own security.