Once you realize that Prince William was forced to attend Pope Francis’s funeral over the weekend, you can see how Kensington Palace has demanded that William needs to be lavished with praise for being dragged kicking and screaming away from the Aston Villa match which was also held on Saturday. The British papers were full of stories of “William proves his big-boy statesman credentials” and “this poor 42-year-old child had to be torn away from his beloved Aston Villa just to attend a funeral!” But this piece takes the proverbial cake. According to the Mail, William is a smooth diplomatic operator because he “discreetly stepped aside” while the actual world leaders had a sidebar meeting.
Prince William’s diplomatic manouevring at the Pope’s funeral that helped Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron hold a three-way discussion with Volodymyr Zelensky has been revealed. The Prince of Wales attended Saturday’s ceremony at the Vatican, alongside world leaders including the US and Ukrainian presidents.
He is now being hailed for a subtle movement which helped pave the way for follow-up discussions between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky. It was the first head-to-head between the two presidents since their fractious clash, also involving US Vice-President JD Vance, at the White House in Washington DC earlier this year. Mr Zelensky hailed Saturday’s summit on the sidelines of the Pope’s funeral as a ‘good meeting that has the potential to become historic’, while the White House said it was ‘very productive’. The meeting between the two leaders was brokered as part of the gathering following the death of Pope Francis, aged 88, on Monday last week.
William’s involvement in Saturday’s occasion included walking alongside Sir Keir in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the service. But he crucially chose to discreetly step aside from a huddle that formed between the political leaders including not only Sir Keir, Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky but also France’s president Mr Macron.
William ‘respectfully peeled away’ to let the PM and his colleagues pursue their talks which were then followed by the sitdown between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky. The Prince of Wales is said to have cannily ‘read the room’ as he moved away, the Telegraph reported.
Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky were then pictured having their own talks on chairs in the middle of St Peter’s Basilica ahead of the funeral ceremony.
I genuinely wonder what Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer think about Kensington Palace’s efforts to give credit to William for the side meeting. It was so obviously put together by Starmer and Macron, both of whom have been very involved with Ukraine and President Zelenskyy. And now the Mail is hailing WILLIAM for stepping away from the actual statesmanship and diplomacy, the delicate arrangement made to get Trump and Zelenskyy to speak one-on-one. William was probably begging to bond with Trump over their gauche blue suits.
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