France and Italy have agreed to strengthen defense cooperation, including in the area of joint arms programs and support for the European defense-industrial base, and named continued support for Ukraine among their key priorities.
This was stated by French President Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after the interstate summit in Antibes, a Ukrinform correspondent reports.
Macron said that the summit was primarily aimed at strengthening French-Italian defense cooperation. He noted that during the discussions, the ministers had met to address shared priorities, including continued support for Ukraine, joint participation in peacekeeping operations, a common security and defense policy, and joint armaments programs, highlighting Franco-Italian successes such as the Aster missile family and the next-generation SAMP/T air defense system.
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According to him, France and Italy remain "natural and indispensable partners" for each other, and the current summit is intended to "project Franco-Italian relations into the future with clear objectives." Macron recalled that this was the logic of the previous interstate treaty, which created a "more ambitious and concrete framework" for the two countries.
