Albania’s Rama Kneels Again to Greet Italy’s Meloni in Rome

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama again knelt to greet his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on 10 July during the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine in Rome. Video from the welcoming ceremony shows Rama briefly dropping to one knee before rising to exchange pleasantries with Meloni. The gesture mirrors a similar episode on 16 May at the European Political Community Summit in Tirana, where the 2-metre-tall Rama joked he wanted to match Meloni’s height. While the act has drawn social-media attention, neither government issued a formal statement, and the bilateral agenda of the Rome conference proceeded as scheduled.