Washington, 23 February 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday called for Western unity, a strong US-European partnership, and ongoing support for Ukraine against Russian aggression at a conservative conference near Washington.

"Europe is far from lost, and it will never be lost," Meloni said in a video address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, which bills itself as the biggest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world.

Meloni expressed confidence in US President Donald Trump, who was also scheduled to speak at the conference.

"Our adversaries hope that President Trump will move away from us, but knowing him as a strong and effective leader, I bet that those who hope for divisions will be proven wrong," the Italian prime minister said.

Striking a balance between conservative rhetoric and broader geopolitical concerns, Meloni criticized left-wing liberalism, elites, "woke" ideologies, "cancel culture," and the mainstream media, while emphasizing the need for Western nations to unite against both internal and external threats.

The Italian leader praised US Vice President JD Vance's recent speech at the Munich Security Conference, in which he sharply criticized European allies, accusing them of restricting freedom of expression and endangering democracy.

Meloni said that Vance had rightly stated "that before discussing security, we must know what we are defending."

Meloni also warned against a potential trade war between the US and Europe, emphasizing the interdependence of their economies and the risk of playing into the hands of other major powers.

Reflecting on Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion over the past three years, Meloni said: "Happiness depends on freedom and freedom depends on courage."

"We must continue today working together for a just and lasting peace, a peace that can only be built with the contribution of all, but above all, with strong leaderships," Meloni added.

This, she said, is what Trump stands for.

The US president recently criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a "dictator" because he had cancelled elections due to the war.