VILNIUS/WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden will host Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Washington on July 27, and the two leaders will discuss issues including the Ukraine war and transatlantic cooperation regarding China, the White House said on Wednesday.

The leaders will also discuss developments in North Africa and Italy’s upcoming presidency of the Group of Seven (G-7) in 2024, White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

This will be Ms Meloni’s first official visit to the United States since taking office in 2022.

Ms Meloni confirmed the meeting at a press conference at the end of the Nato summit in Vilnius.

Ms Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, came to power in October 2022 as the head of a right-wing coalition.

Italian diplomats have said Ms Meloni wanted to see Mr Biden before deciding whether to pull Italy out of China’s Belt and Road (BRI) initiative.

Italy became in 2019 the first and so far only G-7 nation to join the hugely ambitious BRI programme, which critics said would enable China to gain get control of sensitive technologies and vital infrastructure.

Italy will have the G-7 presidency in 2024, and Ms Meloni said the rebuilding of Ukraine would be a focus for her.

“I see working on the reconstruction of Ukraine also as a way to bet on a future of peace, freedom and Euro-Atlantic prosperity for this nation,” she told reporters.

Ms Meloni said support for Africa would also be discussed in her talks with Mr Biden and another feature of the G-7 presidency.

Italy argues that more help for nations such as Tunisia is needed to prevent migrants from making perilous attempts to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

“It’s not true that Africa is a poor continent. Above all, it’s a continent that has been exploited,” she said. REUTERS