Macron and Meloni meet for bilateral summit following Italian leader's rift with Trump

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met French President Emmanuel Macron in Antibes on June 25, 2026, for a bilateral summit aimed at deepening strategic ties. The meeting follows a highly public rift between Meloni and US President Donald Trump, who claimed Meloni begged for a photo to boost her ratings. Seeking closer European alignment, Meloni and Macron agreed on joint defense, nuclear, and space initiatives, despite lingering disputes over migrant detention centers and military deployment to Ukraine.

Macron-Meloni bilateral summit

• ▪Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met French President Emmanuel Macron in Antibes on the French Riviera on June 25, 2026, for their first bilateral summit
• ▪The meeting in Antibes represents the first Franco-Italian summit since a strategic alliance treaty came into force in 2021

Meloni-Trump rift

• ▪Giorgia Meloni distanced herself from US President Donald Trump following a G7 summit in France, citing his constant, unprovoked attacks
• ▪Relations between Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni deteriorated following economic fallout from the US-Israeli war in Iran and Italy's refusal to let US aircraft use its Sicilian air base
• ▪Giorgia Meloni rejected Donald Trump's photo claim as senseless, stating that being his friend had not helped her popularity
• ▪Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that Giorgia Meloni begged him for a photo at the G7 summit to boost her popularity ratings

Franco-Italian strategic cooperation

• ▪France and Italy scheduled the signing of cooperation agreements on nuclear energy and a planned European satellite powerhouse to rival Starlink
• ▪France and Italy planned to sign a defense roadmap emphasizing the SAMP/T air defense system delivered to Ukraine

Macron-Meloni political asymmetry

• ▪Emmanuel Macron is politically strong at the European level but weak domestically, whereas Giorgia Meloni is strong domestically but weak at the European level
• ▪A June 2026 YouTrend survey placed Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party at 28.6% of voting intentions, leading the Democratic Party by over seven points

EU policy disagreements

• ▪Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni both oppose the European Union's free trade agreement with South America's Mercosur bloc
• ▪Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron remain divided over Italy's push for migrant detention centers outside the European Union
• ▪Giorgia Meloni opposes sending Italian troops to Ukraine to provide security guarantees, differing from Emmanuel Macron's stance