Italy's Meloni sees Trump defending Western interests, engaging with Ukraine

By Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

Meloni flew to Florida last weekend for unannounced talks with Trump, winning praise from the incoming president, who called her "a fantastic woman".

Addressing a press conference in Rome, Meloni said she had received an invitation to Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration and was keen to fit it into her schedule.

"If I can, I will happily go," she told reporters.

Meloni's supporters hope the conservative leader will have privileged access to Trump over the next four years and become a bridge between Washington and Europe.

She used Thursday's two-hour news conference to allay concerns that Trump might break with Washington's traditional European allies as he pursued a Make-America-Great-Again agenda.

Trump alarmed many Western capitals this week when he refused to rule out using military or economic action to pursue an acquisition of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and also floated the idea of turning Canada into a U.S. state.

"Regarding the Greenland-Panama issue, I feel confident in excluding the possibility that the USA will attempt to annex territories of interest to them by force in the coming years," Meloni said.

She said Trump was simply flagging that he would not let key strategic concerns close to the United States fall under the sway of foreign competitors, such as China.

"My thinking is that these statements are ... a vigorous way to say the United States will not stand by while other major global players move into areas that are of strategic interest to the United States and, I would add, to the West," Meloni said. 

"DIPLOMACY AND DETERRENCE"

Meloni also dismissed speculation that Trump would stop supporting Ukraine and try to force it to accept unfavourable terms to end its almost three-year war with Russia.

"I do not expect a disengagement by the United States from Ukraine," Meloni said, adding that the only way to persuade Moscow to negotiate was if it was in a difficult position.

"Trump has the ability to balance diplomacy and deterrence and I predict that this will be the case this time too."

Meloni's only criticism of Trump's mooted programme was over his pledge to impose tariffs on global imports into the U.S.

"I think tariffs are not the right solution, but I believe that solutions can be found by talking with EU partners and the USA," she said. 

Defence spending is also likely to prove a bone of contention between Italy and Washington, with Trump calling for NATO members to hike their military budgets to 5% of output.

Italy currently spends barely 1.5% of its gross domestic product on defence. Meloni sidestepped the question on Thursday, saying the problem lay with European budget rules, which don't give governments deficit leeway over military expenditure. 

"The issue is more internal to the European Union which must identify tools if it wants to have competitive defence. Unfortunately it does not have them or they are not adequate." 

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Keith Weir)