Italy to join US-led Pax Silica AI initiative despite spat with Trump

ROME- Italy will join the US-led Pax Silica initiative on artificial intelligence supply chains despite a spat between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and US President Donald Trump, a foreign ministry official said.

Ambassador Armando Varricchio told Friday's Corriere della Sera daily that Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would sign a memorandum of understanding "at the first available opportunity".

"This provides a political basis that demonstrates the willingness to resume from where we had temporarily left off," Varricchio said.

Pax Silica is a U.S. State Department initiative bringing together allied countries to secure AI-related supply chains, covering areas ranging from energy and critical minerals to advanced manufacturing and AI models. The European Commission joined the initiative on Thursday and the Netherlands signed up earlier in the week.

Varricchio, acting as Italy's special envoy for innovation, attended a Washington summit on the initiative as an observer on Thursday and signed a joint declaration on AI opportunities alongside countries including Britain, Germany, Japan, India and South Korea.

Italy was due to join Pax Silica on Monday in Miami, but Tajani called off the trip after Meloni and Trump had a public falling out after the U.S. president complained about Italy's alleged lack of support for the Iran war.

(Reporting by Giulia Segreti in Rome; Editing by Alvise Armellini and David Goodman)