Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and
French Emmanuel Macron had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines
of the G7 summit in Japan on Saturday.
The encounter comes after Macron expressed solidarity for Italy
following this week's deadly floods in Emilia Romagna via
Twitter and said France was "ready to provide all useful
assistance".
It is the first face-to-face encounter between the leaders since
they met at the European Council in Brussels two months ago.
In the meantime there has been tension between Rome and Paris
stemming from French officials' criticism of the Italian
government.
This started with French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin
saying Meloni was incapable of solving the migrant problems she
had campaigned on.
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani subsequently
cancelled a trip to Paris to see his counterpart Catherine
Colonna in protest at the attack.
Stéphane Séjourné, the secretary general of French President
Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, then weighed in, saying
"Meloni does lots of rabble-rousing on illegal immigration: her
policies are unjust, inhuman and ineffective".
Meloni, however, dismissed the comments, saying Séjourné was
trying to use Italy for domestic political purposes.
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