Macron and Meloni try to find common ground at the lowest point in their relations.

RomeItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron met Tuesday to narrow their gap on issues such as Ukraine, the Middle East, and relations with the United States, amid rising tensions between Paris and Rome.

The two main topics on the table were Ukraine and Israel's military offensive in Gaza. The French president is trying to drum up support for a future coalition of volunteers for Ukraine, according to sources at the Élysée Palace. Macron wants to involve Meloni in the coalition he is promoting with Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland, but the Italian leader rejects this formula. "We must abandon personalisms that could jeopardize the unity of the West, which is essential for resolving the conflict," the Italian prime minister recently declared.

For France, Rome is "an important partner" that should also contribute to offering "security guarantees for Ukraine" after the signing of a hypothetical future peace agreement with Russia. These guarantees could include the possibility of a deployment of troops on Ukrainian territory to ensure the maintenance of peaceAnd it is precisely at this point that the plans of Paris and Rome collide head-on.

Meloni rejects sending Italian soldiers to Ukraine, as well as the possibility of implementing NATO's Article 5 in Ukraine, which would imply the country's automatic defense in the event of a new aggression in the future, although Kiev is not a member of the Atlantic Alliance.

The leader of the Brothers of Italy was on the verge of not attending the group's first meeting, held in Paris, arriving late to express her opposition to this initiative. The absence from the trip to Kiev of the French President; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer; German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; and Polish Chancellor Donald Tusk was a further sign that bilateral relations between Paris and Rome were not at their best. But her exclusion from the recent meeting held in Tirana on the sidelines of the Albanian summit—where the four European leaders and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky held a joint telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump—ended up further straining the relationship.

In response to criticism of Italy, Meloni, who also attended the Albanian summit and boasts of having led his country to become a preferred partner of the White House in the European Union, justified himself by asserting that it made no sense to participate in a meeting where the deployment of troops would be discussed. Statements that were immediately denied by the Elysee Palace, implying that the Italian leader had not been invited. "We did not talk about troops, but about a ceasefire. Enough of the false information from the Russians," declared the French president.

In addition to Ukraine, Macron and Meloni addressed the situation in Libya, the challenge of immigration, and the war in Gaza. Paris is seeking Rome's support on the Middle East conflict, but here too the gap between the two countries is profound. France will co-chair an international conference in New York in mid-June to promote the cross-recognition of Israel and Palestine, with the aim of advancing a two-state solution. Macron recently stated that recognizing a Palestinian state "is not only a moral duty, but a political imperative," while Italy does not support unilateral recognition of Palestine without an agreement with Israel.