Vance is in Milan for the Winter Olympics

[ad_1] MILAN (AP) — Vice President JD Vance landed in Milan along with his household Thursday, the primary cease on a visit combining diplomacy and sports activities the place he's main President Donald Trump’s delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and later stopping in Armenia and Azerbaijan in a present of assist for a peace agreement brokered by the White House final yr.

The weeklong journey could also be one in every of only some worldwide journeys Vance makes this yr. Trump and his Cupboard members are taking a tighter concentrate on home points — and home journey — heading into the November midterm elections , White Home Chief of Workers Susie Wiles mentioned final month.

On Thursday, Vance plans to satisfy with U.S. athletes competing within the Milan Cortina Winter Video games, and later plans to look at the U.S. women’s hockey team tackle Czechia in a preliminary sport.

On the opening ceremony for the video games on Friday, the vice chairman will lead a U.S. delegation that features his spouse, second girl Usha Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta. Former Olympic gold medalists will even be within the delegation, together with hockey participant sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando; speedskater Apolo Ohno and determine skater Evan Lysacek.

Vance is following within the footsteps of former vice presidents Joe Biden who attended the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 and Mike Pence who traveled to Pyeongchang , Korea in 2018. Former Vice President Kamala Harris didn't attend the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as a result of the Biden administration didn't ship any diplomatic officers as a boycott over human rights concerns .

After Italy, Vance plans to move to Armenia and Azerbaijan, the place Trump has tasked him with constructing on a deal geared toward ending 4 many years of battle between the 2 international locations.

The peace settlement boosts the place of the U.S. within the area at a time when Russia’s affect is declining. The 2 former Soviet republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan, agreed beneath the deal to reopen key transportation routes and bolster cooperation with the USA in power, know-how and the economic system. The deal additionally requires the creation of a serious transit hall dubbed the Trump Route for Worldwide Peace and Prosperity. It's anticipated to attach Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, that are separated by a 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) patch of Armenian territory.

Vance’s mission on the journey to additional the peace effort is just like an project he took on in October, when he traveled to Israel weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated in its conflict with Hamas in Gaza, reiterating the Trump administration’s dedication to the hassle.

Along with the Israel cease final yr, Vance made journeys to France, Germany, Greenland, India, and the U.Okay. He twice visited Italy, assembly Pope Francis earlier than his loss of life, and later, his successor Pope Leo XIV .

Whereas presidents focus their overseas journey on conferences with a number of the U.S.’s greatest allies, vice presidents typically are referred to as on to make journeys a bit of off the crushed path. Biden, for instance, went to Mongolia in 2011, the place he tried some archery and was gifted a horse. In 2017, Pence visited Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro, the place he affirmed assist for NATO, together with taking part in symbolic diplomacy with the planting of an oak tree.

For vice presidents, overseas journeys are partly “a operate of what the president likes to do — and never love to do,” mentioned Marc Brief, who was chief of workers to Pence throughout Trump’s first time period.

Generally, journeys can embrace sudden parts, equivalent to Pence’s 2018 journey to the East Asia Summit in Singapore that included a casual assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Brief additionally recalled a 2019 journey to Poland the place Pence was referred to as to fill in for the president who stayed residence to watch Hurricane Dorian. That journey concerned a gathering with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The fact, clearly, is the president has a variety of different obligations,” Brief mentioned, “So it’s typically necessary that the USA be represented by the very best official out there. In lots of instances, that’s simply the vice chairman.”

window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : '870613919693099', xfbml : true, version : 'v2.9' }); };

(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); [ad_2] Source link