Vance says Olympics are ‘one of many few issues’ that unite People

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Related Press

MILAN (AP) — Vice President JD Vance arrived in Milan together with his household Thursday, telling U.S. athletes competing within the Milan Cortina Winter Video games that the competitors “is among the few issues that unites all the nation.”

It’s the primary cease for Vance on a visit combining diplomacy and sports activities. He’s main President Donald Trump’s delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and later stopping in Armenia and Azerbaijan in a present of help for a peace settlement brokered by the White Home final yr.

Vance, who plans to observe the U.S. ladies’s hockey staff tackle Czechia in a preliminary sport on Thursday, instructed athletes the journey is a spotlight of his time in workplace. “The entire nation — Democrat, Republican, unbiased — we’re all rooting for you and we’re cheering for you,” Vance stated.

The weeklong journey could also be considered one of just a few 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 stated final month.

On the opening ceremony for the video games on Friday, the vp 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 stated his spouse “shouldn’t be a sports activities fan” however “obsessively makes us watch the Olympics” each two years, citing that as proof of the best way the competitors “actually brings the nation collectively. All people is rooting for you guys and everyone’s cheering for you.”

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 considerations.

After the Olympics: Armenia and Azerbaijan

After Italy, Vance plans to move to Armenia and Azerbaijan, the place Trump has tasked him with constructing on a deal aimed toward ending 4 a long time of battle between the 2 nations.

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 below the deal to reopen key transportation routes and bolster cooperation with the USA in vitality, 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 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 struggle 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.Ok. He twice visited Italy, assembly Pope Francis earlier than his loss of life, and later, his successor Pope Leo XIV.

Vice presidents typically take the highway much less traveled

Whereas presidents focus their overseas journey on conferences with a few of the U.S.’s largest allies, vice presidents typically are referred to as on to make journeys slightly off the overwhelmed 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 help 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,” stated Marc Quick, who was chief of employees to Pence throughout Trump’s first time period.

Generally, journeys can embody surprising components, akin to Pence’s 2018 journey to the East Asia Summit in Singapore that included an off-the-cuff assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Quick 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 lots of different duties,” Quick stated, “So it’s typically vital that the USA be represented by the best official obtainable. In lots of instances, that’s simply the vp.”