Why Italy is joining the US-led Pax Silica AI initiative despite tensions with Trump

According to a Foreign Ministry official, Italy is poised to join the US-led Pax Silica initiative on artificial intelligence supply chains despite ongoing tensions between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and US President Donald Trump.

On Friday, Ambassador Armando Varricchio told Corriere della Sera that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and US State Secretary State Rubio would sign an official memorandum of understanding at the first available opportunity.

In this connection, Varricchio said: “ This provides a political basis that demonstrates the willingness to resume from where we had temporarily left.”

Pax Silica is primarily a US State Department coordinated effort specifically designed to secure AI-related supply chains.

This framework covers significant areas ranging from critical minerals for renewable energy to foundation models. The European Commission superheaded the initiative on Thursday while the Netherlands signed the declaration earlier this week.

Yesterday, Varricchio attended the summit as an observer while representing Italy, endorsing a shared agreement on AI opportunities alongside nations including Britain, Germany, Japan, India and South Korea.

As reported by Reuters, Italy was scheduled to join Pax Silica on Monday, but Tajani called off the trip after Meloni and Trump had a public falling out over the US president complaining about Italy’s lack of sufficient support for the Iran war.

Meloni forthrightly opposed Trump on several points, defending Europe and calling him out for publicly claiming he had been abandoned by his allies in the West.