British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the UK and Italy are “very aligned” in values as he welcomed far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday for talks focused on migration, defense and the war in Ukraine.
While Sunak meets world leaders of all political stripes, he had offered notably warm words as he greeted Meloni at 10 Downing Street, the British leader’s official residence.
Sunak, leader of the British Conservative Party, praised Meloni’s “very careful handling of the Italian economy.”
Photo: AFP
“I think the values between our two countries are very aligned, which is why we can work so well together on shared challenges, whether it’s responding to Putin’s illegal invasion in Ukraine, where again I pay tribute to your leadership, but also tackling illegal migration, which is something that is common to both of us,” Sunak said.
The two governments share an interest in stopping migrants reaching their countries by boat.
Sunak’s administration is advancing a bill through the British parliament that would deny the right to asylum to anyone who arrives in the UK without permission. The legislation has been condemned by refugee groups and the UN’s human rights body.
The government also plans to send migrants who arrive by boat on a one-way trip to Rwanda, an equally controversial plan that is being blocked by legal challenges.
Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party leads Italy’s right-wing coalition government, has led a crackdown on people-smugglers and on rescue ships operated by charities that she said encourage migrants to risk dangerous voyages from north Africa across the Mediterranean.
Meloni told Sunak that “tackling traffickers and illegal migration is something that your government is doing very well. I’m following your work and I absolutely agree with your work, and I think there are many things that we can do together.”
Meloni said “there is much more that we can do on many topics on which we are on the same side — defense, Ukraine.”
Unlike some populists in the West, Meloni has taken a strongly pro-NATO, pro-European position on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
After their meeting, the two leaders were due to have a private tour of Westminster Abbey, where King Charles III is to be crowned on May 6.
A group of protesters gathered outside the gates of Downing Street as the leaders met, holding signs that read “No to fascist Meloni” while chanting: “Refugees in, Meloni out.”
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS