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02/05 04:27 CST Vance is in Milan for the Winter Olympics, a trip that will
later take him to Armenia and Azerbaijan
Vance is in Milan for the Winter Olympics, a trip that will later take him to
Armenia and Azerbaijan
By MICHELLE L. PRICE
Associated Press
MILAN (AP) --- Vice President JD Vance landed in Milan with his family
Thursday, the first stop on a trip combining diplomacy and sports where he is
leading President Donald Trump's delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and
later stopping in Armenia and Azerbaijan in a show of support for a peace
agreement brokered by the White House last year.
The weeklong trip may be one of only a few international trips Vance makes this
year. Trump and his Cabinet members are taking a tighter focus on domestic
issues --- and domestic travel --- heading into the November midterm elections,
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said last month.
On Thursday, Vance plans to meet with U.S. athletes competing in the Milan
Cortina Winter Games, and later plans to watch the U.S. women's hockey team
take on Czechia in a preliminary game.
At the opening ceremony for the games on Friday, the vice president will lead a
U.S. delegation that includes his wife, second lady Usha Vance, Secretary of
State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta. Former Olympic
gold medalists will also be in the delegation, including hockey player sisters
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando; speedskater Apolo
Ohno and figure skater Evan Lysacek.
Vance is following in 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 did not
attend the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because the Biden administration did
not send any diplomatic officials as a boycott over human rights concerns.
After Italy, Vance plans to head to Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Trump has
tasked him with building on a deal aimed at ending four decades of conflict
between the two countries.
The peace agreement boosts the position of the U.S. in the region at a time
when Russia's influence is declining. The two former Soviet republics, Armenia
and Azerbaijan, agreed under the deal to reopen key transportation routes and
bolster cooperation with the United States in energy, technology and the
economy. The deal also calls for the creation of a major transit corridor
dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. It is expected
to connect Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, which are
separated by a 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) patch of Armenian territory.
Vance's mission on the trip to further the peace effort is similar to an
assignment he took on in October, when he traveled to Israel weeks after a
ceasefire was negotiated in its war with Hamas in Gaza, reiterating the Trump
administration's commitment to the effort.
In addition to the Israel stop last year, Vance made trips to France, Germany,
Greenland, India, and the U.K. He twice visited Italy, meeting Pope Francis
before his death, and later, his successor Pope Leo XIV.
While presidents focus their foreign travel on meetings with some of the U.S.'s
biggest allies, vice presidents often are called on to make trips a little off
the beaten path. Biden, for example, went to Mongolia in 2011, where he tried
some archery and was gifted a horse. In 2017, Pence visited Estonia, Georgia
and Montenegro, where he affirmed support for NATO, along with participating in
symbolic diplomacy with the planting of an oak tree.
For vice presidents, foreign trips are partly "a function of what the president
likes to do --- and not like to do," said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to
Pence during Trump's first term.
Sometimes, trips can include unexpected elements, such as Pence's 2018 trip to
the East Asia Summit in Singapore that included an informal meeting with
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Short also recalled a 2019 trip to Poland where Pence was called to fill in for
the president who stayed home to monitor Hurricane Dorian. That trip involved a
meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"The reality, obviously, is the president has a lot of other responsibilities,"
Short said, "So it's often important that the United States be represented by
the highest official available. In many cases, that's just the vice president."
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