Germany key partner for Italy says Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 27 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Friday said Germany is a key partner for Italy during his first state visit to the country.
    "We are going through a phase of great cooperation between our two countries.
    "Our economies are closely connected", said Mattarella, speaking in Berlin after a meeting with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
    Mattarella also told a joint press conference with his German counterpart that the arrival of the new centre-right government of Giorgia Meloni had left relations between Italy and Germany "unchanged".
    He said the relationship had not changed "both because they are so solid that they overcome different changes" and because the good relationship "is objective", he noted, as proven by an action-plan to boost cooperation between the two countries signed last year by the two governments and a phone call held late thursday between the Italian Premier giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss, among others, about immigration ahead of upcoming European Councils.
    Meanwhile Steinmeier told the press conference that he had spoken about the war in Ukraine with his Italian counterpart.
    "Our common attitude is clear: Germany and Italy remain firmly beside Ukraine", he said.
    The German president also said that the "cooperation between the two governments" of Italy and Germany "is proceeding in a very professional way", replying to a question on relations between the cabinets of Giorgia Meloni and Olaf Scholz. (ANSA).