French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed to work jointly for a stronger Europe as they met on Tuesday following bilateral tensions over Ukraine, trade and relations with the United States.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed her French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to Rome with a firm handshake on Tuesday, a meeting that many interpreted as a sign of diplomatic rapprochement. Macron wanted to ensure that Meloni and he could move forward together,

The French president traveled to Rome on Tuesday to meet with the Italian prime minister in an effort to ease bilateral relations, which have been rocky since Donald Trump took office and strained by differences over the war in Ukraine.