Italian PM Georgia Meloni: Kyriakos Mitsotakis and I talk about many issues

"Relations between Italy and Greece are excellent, as is natural between two countries that share a geostrategic identity and belong to the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance. Kyriakos Mitsotakis and I sit next to each other in the European Councils and play a leading role in various 'formats', such as MED9, MED5 and, of course, European Summits. The North-South Summit, which took place before Christmas in Finland, I consider to be one of the most interesting innovations of recent months.

"As I underlined in the press conference with which the Summit concluded, a few years ago, the so-called 'thrifty countries' and those that some viewed as 'not exactly serious', could meet to talk about the big issues of European security. It means that many things are changing now. I believe that the work that Greece and Italy have done in recent years has contributed to this change. Yes, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and I talk about many issues on which we have a common approach, on issues of security, defence and migration, which concern us as they do few other countries in Europe. But we are also talking about issues such as environmental protection and management projects, at a time when we are facing extreme climate phenomena.

"Soon, we will not have a simple meeting, but an intergovernmental conference will be organised. The last one took place in Corfu, I think in 2017. The next one will take place in Rome, if I remember correctly on February 9 (Italian diplomatic sources have given the date of February 19th, not the 9th) and our goal is to formalise, with new signatures, the breadth of our cooperation with a joint statement, in which the thread of all our cooperation will be followed and with some bilateral agreements, on matters of particular importance. These will probably include the areas of security and civil protection".