BARI, Italy — President Biden on Friday morning held a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with the two leaders expected to discuss Ukraine, as well as China’s supply of materiel that is aiding Russia’s war effort and could pose long-term threats to Europe.
Biden had no plans to bring up abortion rights, which became a thorny topic as top leaders debated whether to include language in a broad agreement among leaders of the Group of Seven, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the talks.
Biden, along with leaders of France, Germany and Canada, have insisted on including language around abortion and reproductive rights, while Meloni was strongly opposed.
“I’m not aware of an intention to discuss that topic,” said the official.
The final text is expected to not explicitly mention the word abortion, but it will restate the G-7’s endorsement of last year’s communiqué, which did use that term. It will also say that the G-7 leaders support universal health-care access for women, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health rights.
During their meeting, Biden and Meloni were expected to discuss ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, the official said.
This evening, the president will meet with Pope Francis, with whom he has had an ongoing relationship as a world leader and the head of the Catholic Church that has been an important part of Biden’s life and faith.
They are planning to discuss several topics, including climate change and artificial intelligence, a technology that the octogenarian pope, who says he cannot use a computer, has warned tech titans and world leaders about. Francis on Friday will also become the first pope to address G-7 leaders, joining a summit session dedicated to artificial intelligence.
At this year’s summit, Meloni invited a host of leaders who do not belong to the G-7, part of an effort to “strengthen dialogue with the nations of the Global South.” But other than Meloni and Francis, Biden will not participate in any other bilateral meetings, including with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“These trips, there’s always a lot of leaders and very little time,” the official said.
There was some consternation here, however, that Biden chose to skip a dinner held Thursday evening hosted by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. White House officials pointed to a busy schedule during the day, as well as an evening conference he held with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I don’t have any sort of magic formula to share with you. These are very intense days filled with lots of meetings, and we try to see as many as possible,” the senior administration official said. “We prioritize the best we can.”
Biden has made it a bit of a theme to skip the dinners at the global summits he attends.
When NATO leaders had a dinner last year in Lithuania, Biden skipped it to go to his hotel. In 2022, he skipped a dinner in Bali for leaders at the Group of 20 nations. (Officials had to clarify that it wasn’t because he had covid, after he sat next to then-Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who had tested positive.) During a gathering for dinner in Hiroshima during the G-7 last year, he departed early.
Following his meetings Friday, Biden is scheduled to depart during the evening for a long flight that, after a refueling stop, will arrive in Los Angeles for a star-studded fundraiser that features former president Barack Obama, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. It also includes actor George Clooney, who last month called a top Biden aide to complain about the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court’s action against Israeli leaders — a case his wife, Amal Clooney, has worked on, as The Washington Post reported.
Hanging over the summit here, though, have been questions over whether this will be Biden’s last G-7 meeting as president. Biden has often recalled the global disruption that occurred under President Donald Trump, and some of the concern about what would happen if Trump wins reelection in November.
“There’s not a major international meeting I attend that before it’s over — and I’ve attended many, more than most presidents have in three and a half years — that a world leader doesn’t pull me aside as I’m leaving and say, ‘He can’t win. You can’t let him win,’” Biden recently said in an interview with Time magazine.
“My democracy and their democracy is at stake. My democracy is at stake. And so name me a world leader other than [Viktor] Orban and [Vladimir] Putin who think that Trump should be the world leader in the United States of America,” he added.
The senior administration official downplayed some of those concerns. Asked if Trump’s possible return came up during the summit, the official responded, “I have not heard this topic come up in my time here.”