“Italy and France are two linked nations, central protagonists in the EU, which particularly need to dialogue at a time like this because our common interests are many and converging,” Meloni said in her statements to the press at the Elysée Palace alongside Macron before their bilateral talks.

Meloni was also in Paris to promote Rome’s bid for Expo 2030.

The two countries’ friendship is also stronger than disagreements, Macron said, referring to a string of recent spats mainly over migrant issues.

Evoking the signing of the Quirinale Treaty in November 2021, that sealed bilateral friendship, Macron hailed the “links between our societies, our economies, our universities, our artists, which keep this unique rapport alive every day”.

“... it is this friendship that interests me above all, Madame Prime Minister, which enables us to go through controversy, and disagreements, but always in a framework that is respectful because it is part of a history that is greater and deeper than us.”

Macron told Meloni that there must be coordination between European Union countries to avert tragedies like last week’s shipwreck off Greece in which hundreds died.

He stressed the need to strengthen the EU’s common migration policy.

“We continue to see dramas in the Mediterranean, we must organise ourselves better” on asylum and immigration to avoid new dramas, Macron said, also emphasising the need to strengthen “the control of our external borders”, an issue that Italy, placed in the front line, “knows well”, he said.

The tragedy at Pylos was one of the worst migrant disasters of recent years.

The show of unity is timely given recent tension between the two countries.

In their latest spat, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed Meloni is incapable of resolving Italy’s migration problems.

He characterised her as a far-right leader unable to solve the migrant problems she had campaigned on when she scored a crushing general election win in September.

Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier Antonio Tajani cancelled a trip to Paris to meet with his French counterpart in protest.

That followed a November row over a migrant rescue ship that ended up in France after Italy refused it entry.

Then, Stephane Sejourne , the secretary general of Macron’s Renaissance party, was quoted by daily newspaper Le Figaro as calling Meloni’s migration policies “inhuman” and “incompetent”.

He was quoted as saying “Meloni does lots of rabble-rousing on illegal immigration: her policies are unjust, inhuman and ineffective”.

Meloni said the statements did not affect bilateral ties as they were meant for internal consumption.

Going into the bilateral talks, Meloni said Macron agreed that EU financial parameters are inadequate.

She said with Paris “we will continue to support Ukraine, in an all-round and comprehensive way”.

ANSA