Italian Embassy Promotes G7’s 2025 Ukraine Reconstruction Conference
Against the backdrop of 16 huge photographs depicting the architectural splendor of Kyiv, some 200 dignitaries gathered on October 22 at the Italian Embassy in advance of a July 2025 meeting in Rome to finance the rebuilding of Ukraine.
All eyes focused on four powerful women: the hostess, Italian Ambassador Mariangela Zappia; Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova; Marisa Lago, US undersecretary for international trade; and Penny Pritzker, former US secretary of commerce in the Obama administration.
Ambassadors Offer Reflections and Dinner at Meridian Summit and Ball
Several ambassadors offered their thoughts on collaborative investment for growth at the Meridian International Center’s Shaping Geopolitical Futures Summit on the morning of October 18. Later that evening, many offered up their residences and embassies for the Meridian International Center’s popular annual ball. It’s a daylong affair that mixes business with pleasure and has proven to be a winning formula for Meridian, a nonpartisan, nonprofit center of diplomacy founded in 1960.
A New Bench of Ambassadors Arrive in DC
Washington’s newest crop of ambassadors includes five women, two diplomats who have previously served here, and one son of a former ambassador. They represent a variety of countries ranging from the world’s most populous, India, with just over 1.45 billion inhabitants, to one of its smallest—tropical Barbados—with only 282,000. The list also includes one of the wealthiest nations, Switzerland, with annual per-capita income exceeding $90,000, to one of its poorest, Somalia, with a per-capita income of only $527.
