ROME - Never at a loss for a cliche, the Italian press greeted America's new secretary of state yesterday as the "iron lady" of U.S. diplomacy. The comparison with Britain's Margaret Thatcher may be a bit of a stretch, but Madeleine Albright did display a certain Thatcheresque streak in her ministerial debut on the world stage.
She lectured the Italians on not doing business with "rogue states" like Libya and Cuba, informed Russia that NATO expansion will go ahead regardless of any Kremlin objections, and rejected a French demand that a European be appointed to head NATO's Southern Command. At the end of the day, she posed for photographs with tourists on a hill overlooking the Forum.
"Awesome," said a star-struck American student, echoing a word used by Albright earlier this month to describe U.S. foreign policy. "It's the secretary of state."
In the absence of a great deal of new substance, style took center stage on Albright's visit to Italy at the start of a nine-country, 11-day world tour. Albright's aides were anxious to draw attention to their boss' penchant for speaking her mind in closed-door sessions with Italian leaders, and her willingness to depart from her brief.
"Her style is frank and direct, but not rude," said one official, in describing how the secretary had told Italian leaders that the European policy of fostering a "critical dialogue" with countries like Iran was going nowhere.
Albright preferred to describe her style as "friendly," an implied contrast to the aloof, lawyerly ways of her predecessor, Warren Christopher. "It's a very people-to-people style. Everybody has their own style, and I am trying my own out," she told reporters. To underline the new informality, she chose to begin her trip by donning a black Stetson hat acquired during a visit to Texas.
It remains to be seen how well the Albright style is greeted in France and China, where diplomats are expected to follow rigid rules of procedure. But it appeared to go down well with the Italians, who seem grateful for any kind of American attention. Italy may boast the world's fifth-largest economy, after the United States, Japan, Germany, and France, but Italian leaders are forever complaining about being left out in the diplomatic cold.
Italy strongly supports the Clinton administration's push for the eastward expansion of NATO to include former Warsaw Pact members Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Italian leaders would like to go further and admit the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia, in order to form a land bridge between their country and Hungary.
U.S. officials said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini both made strong pitches for Slovenia's admission into NATO. The Clinton administration has not made up its mind on the candidacy of Slovenia, which would inject a new Balkan dimension into the planned expansion of NATO by 1999.
Italy shares the concerns expressed by other West European countries over the Clinton administration's attempts to use trade as a political weapon. A major Italian telecommunications company, Stet, is being threatened with sanctions by Washington for dealing with Cuban companies that have assets that may have been expropriated from American citizens.
A State Department official said Albright "leaned on" the Italian leaders to curtail their business dealings with Iran and Libya, which supply Italy with 42 percent of its oil imports. She argued that the European policy of "critical dialogue" had not deterred Iran from embarking on a military modernization program, providing weapons to terrorist groups, and building up its nuclear capability.
U.S. officials said Albright told Dini that she was "disturbed" by Italy's treatment of "rogue states." She later told a press conference that "supporting states that support terrorism is a real problem for us."
European governments argue that the U.S. policy of trade embargoes against countries like Iran has been similarly unsuccessful in promoting democratization. Differences over Cuba are even more pronounced. The Europeans have virtually unanimously criticized the Helms-Burton act, which allows U.S. citizens to bring suit against foreign companies trading in "stolen property" in Cuba.