Biden-Meloni Bilateral Meeting At White House Underway Shortly

13:00 ET 18:00 GMT: President Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are shortly due to meet at the White House, Meloni's second White House meeting in seven months. The meeting is likely to focus on support for Ukraine and Italy’s leadership of the G7 ahead of the group's leaders summit in June.

• Gianluca Pastori, an analyst at the ISPI think tank in Milan, said: “Meloni and Biden both for different reasons seem to be in difficulty so this meeting can show the public opinion that there’s a solid relationship with allies that are considered important.”
• Meloni has largely bucked predictions that her right-wing government would present a challenge to EU unity on Ukraine. Meloni recently signed a cooperation agreement for military and technical assistance with Ukraine and hosted a G7 leaders’ meeting in Kyiv last week.
• Biden and Meloni are also likely to discuss an emerging proposalto tap up frozen Russian sovereign assets and use them to fund Ukraine's war effort.
• Bloomberg notes, "Meloni’s common ground with Biden extends beyond Ukraine. In a visit to the Oval Office last July, she briefed the president on her proposal to cut back on Italy’s reliance on China. “The US knows we are trustworthy,” she told reporters afterward."