As part of the United States’ ongoing consultations with its allies and partners in Europe and beyond, President Barack Obama will travel to Italy in March, after the Netherlands and Belgium. In the Netherlands, he will participate in the Nuclear Security Summit, hosted by the Dutch government, where world leaders will highlight progress made to secure nuclear materials and commit to future steps to prevent nuclear terrorism. He will also hold bilateral events with Dutch officials.
From the Netherlands, the President will travel to Brussels for a US-EU Summit with the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. This will be President Obama’s first visit to these European institutions. While in Belgium, he will also hold bilateral events with Belgian Government officials and with the Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Then, the American President will fly to Italy and in Rome will meet with the Italian President Napolitano and Prime Minister Letta.
On March 27, he will meet with His Holiness, Pope Francis. The visit will be the first meeting between the two men. The President looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis about their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality. The US President quoted Pope Francis in a speech about income inequality in December, but already before, in October, he told he was “hugely impressed” with the Pope’s “incredible empathy to the least of these, to the poor”.
Obama said: “Across the developed world, inequality has increased. Some of you may have seen the Pope himself spoke about this at eloquent length. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”.
Secretary of State John Kerry already visited the Vatican recently, paving the way for Obama’s visit. Kerry did not meet with the Pope, but discussed about the Syrian civil war and Middle East peace process and health care reform with his Vatican counterpart, Archbishop Pietro Parolin.
During the meeting, Parolin touched on the birth control issue, considered a hot point, but he did not make it a focus of the 90-minute discussions, which were praised by the Vatican as “positive” and “constructive.”
Foreign policy is considered the main theme of the meeting, considering Francis has made that a priority in his speeches and he will be meeting with Obama two months before he will make his own pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Vatican and Washington were at odds a year ago when the US were threatening a military strike against the Syrian regime and the Pope rallied international protests against armed intervention. The military threats followed by the papal world prayer vigil, led Damascus’ regime to agree to give up its chemical arms, and now the Pontiff and the President are on the same page in pushing for a peace settlement.
According to the Washington Post, “Obama is sure to issue an invitation to Pope Francis to visit the United States, and specifically the White House. While Francis has been less inclined to be a globe-trotter in the mold of John Paul II or Benedict XVI, there’s a good chance Francis could visit the US for the September 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia”. Obama already traveled to Vatican City in 2009, with the first lady Michelle, to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.
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