Britain and Italy agree to deepen security cooperation, says UK's Starmer

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00:00Meanwhile the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in Rome today meeting the Italian Premier

00:05Giorgia Maloney. Their focus is clamping down on migration via boats that reach their shores

00:11illegally. Now Starmer and Maloney hail from different sides of the political spectrum,

00:17Starmer from the centre left and Maloney from the far right. They are not though

00:21their natural allies but on this issue the pair are looking for common ground.

00:26We also discussed the challenge of irregular migration. This is a problem across Europe

00:35for both of our countries in particular but across Europe. As Director of Public Prosecutions

00:41in Britain some years ago I saw the important work that can be done across borders on issues

00:48like counter-terrorism and I've never accepted as we discussed that we can't do the same with

00:53smuggling gangs and now of course Italy has shown that we can. You've made remarkable progress

01:02working with countries along migration routes as equals. Well our Rome correspondent Seema

01:09Gupta has been listening to that press conference this afternoon. She's with

01:12me on the programme live now. Seema tell us a bit more about what was said.

01:18Well essentially on the issue of migration which is something that we knew that they

01:22were going to be discussing. Clearly they were talking about intensifying their cooperation on

01:28this issue, dealing with illegal immigration and fighting those smugglers. Miss Maloney,

01:35the Italian Prime Minister talked about putting in a system in place where both countries police

01:41forces as well as intelligence services could make the laws of the country work better to deal

01:48with the smugglers which are very powerful and strong across the world. She said no country

01:55alone can deal with these network of smugglers and that the fight or the struggle to deal

02:02with this issue has to be brought to the countries of origins from which these migrants leave as well

02:08as the transit countries. Italy of course has seen a 60% drop in the number of migrant arrivals

02:16crossing the Mediterranean and coming into the country in the first half of this year as compared

02:20to the same period last year partly due to deals that it struck with countries like Libya and

02:27Tunisia in trying to stem the migrant flow. Deals that have led to criticism particularly from

02:35rights groups who believe that some of these deals are being made with countries that have

02:40dubious rights records themselves. Mr. Stammer particularly talking about the situation that

02:46Italy has put forward in the decision to process male asylum seekers in Albania

02:55and that is something that they said they're very interested in looking at, they're simply

02:59exploring but Mr. Stammer also making it very clear that he believes in adopting a pragmatic

03:05approach in dealing with this issue, they want to study what Italy is proposing in Albania

03:12and he believes really deterrence is really the most effective way to deal with the issue of

03:18illegal migration and trying to clamp down on those people, smugglers. The two leaders also

03:26touched on the issue of Ukraine of course, both of them supporting Kyiv's right to achieve peace,

03:34the issue of the authorization of weapons to be used on western, provided weapons to be used on

03:42Russian territory, a question was asked on this, Ms. Maloney saying every single country has to

03:49decide how they want to go forward for Italy, they're focusing on defending the civil population,

03:56she appreciated Mr. Stammer's support as he thanked Ms. Maloney and the Italian government

04:04for their leadership on the issue of Ukraine and said, Ms. Maloney essentially said

04:11each country has to decide how far the risk is of a possible escalation in every decision that

04:18they make in every day. And Seema, on the question of immigration, as I say Stammer and Maloney

04:28coming from very different sides of the political spectrum, can they really find common ground on

04:32that issue? Well, we'll have to see and you're absolutely right, I mean you've got Keir Starmer,

04:40the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, someone who's coming from the Labour, the centre

04:46left and then on the hard right, on the opposite side, you have Georgia Maloney and her far-right

04:51Brothers of Italy party and her right-wing coalition that's running the country. I think

04:58they're both though united in the pressures that they are facing in trying to curb these migrant

05:05arrivals onto their shores and at the moment with those numbers going down so significantly

05:11compared to 2023, Italy at least in terms of numbers is looking like this potential success

05:18story. For Mr. Stammer's part, he wants to show himself as dealing with the issue of immigration

05:25but we understand from reports that he's also receiving criticism from backbenchers of his

05:32own party as well as those rights groups who are saying that what Italy is trying to do is

05:38questionable, dealing with those other countries and perhaps how is this project in Albania going

05:44to actually work. Ms. Maloney during that media conference making it very clear that

05:49arrangement with Albania to process asylum seekers is not in any way according to her

05:55breaking any EU or Italian laws. So she feels this project which she said should be up and

06:01running in some weeks will be a way forward and perhaps an example to other countries and I think

06:08that's what Mr. Stammer is here to find out more upon and he did in fact bring his new leader of

06:16a task force to deal with this migration issue in the UK. That person was travelling with him

06:23in these meetings with their Italian counterparts. Sima Gupta live in Rome, thank you.

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