Italian President Sergio Mattarella
had a telephone conversation on Monday with French President
Emmanuel Macron, amid tension between Rome and Paris over
migrants after a big row regarding the NGO-run search-and-rescue
ship the Ocean Viking.
The Italian head of State's office said in a statement that both
leaders agreed on the great importance of relations between the
two countries and on need for full cooperation, both in the
bilateral sphere and within the European Union.
On Friday Paris allowed the Ocean Viking, which is run by French
NGO SOS Méditerranée, to dock in Toulon with 230 asylum seekers
on board after Rome ignored the ship's appeals to be assigned a
port of safety for weeks.
But French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that
Paris has suspended plans to take in 3,500 refugees currently in
Italy and called on "all the participants" in the EU's
migrant-relocation mechanism to adopt similar measures.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said that this was an
"aggressive, incomprehensible, unjustifiable reaction".
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