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France: We must work with Italy to solve diplomatic spat

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
France: We must work with Italy to solve diplomatic spat
Photo: AFP

The French Interior Minister said France and Italy "had to" work together on security issues, two months after a diplomatic spat led to Paris briefly recalling its ambassador.

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Relations between the two countries fractured in February following repeated clashes with Italy's populist coalition government.

Paris was incensed when Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio made a surprise visit to France on February 5th to meet a group of radical "yellow vest" protesters who have led demonstrations against France's centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

READ ALSO What's behind Italy's spat with France?


Christophe Castaner arriving for the meeting i Paris on Thursday. Photo: AFP

France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner and his Italian counterpart Matteo Salvini met at a meeting of G7 interior ministers in Paris on Thursday.

"I think I can say that the issues of combating illegal immigration or terrorism should not divide us.... We cannot deal with these issues on our own," Castaner said after a meeting with Salvini.

"When we talk about real life, concrete things, there is no room for arguments, we have to agree," Salivini added, at a separate news conference.

The Italian minister said he was no longer interested in the "past" and highlighted areas of agreement between the two countries, particularly on the management of the Franco-Italian border.

Salvini said France and Italy had a "common position... on defending external borders" and that France - as Italy had already done - was ready to provide "boats, men and equipment to the Libyan coastguard".

Castaner, however, was more vague, simply saying G7 ministers had agreed "to strengthen our support for Libya and Morocco through the presence of coastguards".

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in February that a "line was crossed" with Di Maio's visit, which was organised without French authorities being informed.

Analysts and diplomats said relations were affected by the fundamentally different outlooks of Macron, a pro-European centrist, and the eurosceptic government in Rome.

There are also deep-running economic tensions, competition for influence in Libya, and a sense in Italy that France has done little to help its neighbour cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants in recent years.

The last time Paris recalled its ambassador to Rome was during the World War II when Italy under leader Benito Mussolini invaded France in 1940.

Foreign ministers from the G7 - the United States, Italy, France, Canada, Germany, Britain and Japan - are to meet on Friday and Saturday in the northern French resort of Dinard.

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