PARIS (Reuters) – The presidents of France and Italy on Monday affirmed the importance of having good diplomatic relations, after relations frayed over how to deal with migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, spoke in a phone call and “stressed the need to create the conditions for full cooperation in all areas, both bilaterally and within the European Union”, their offices said.
The discussion took place after relations soured between Paris and Rome over the fate of around 230 migrants rescued by a charity organisation, pitting Macron’s centrist government against Italy’s newly elected right-wing government.
Last week, the Ocean Viking charity-run ship carrying the migrants docked in the French port of Toulon after being turned away by Italy, with France having criticised Italy’s decision not to have let it dock in Italy.
Paris had accused Rome of breaking a bond of trust and breaching international laws on safeguards for migrants while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Paris’s reaction “incomprehensible and unjustified”.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Angus MacSwan)
