Italy and France may have disagreements but also have ever-deeper shared interests and can "change the history of Europe" when they work in tandem, outgoing envoy Christan Masset stated on Friday.
"Our economies are increasingly linked, our common interests are increasingly profound," Masset told Corriere della Sera daily in an interview.
"When we move together, as we did for example with the Next Generation EU plan, we change the history of Europe," Masset said, referring the European Unions' 724 billion euro post-pandemic recovery fund.
Looking to the future of Italy-France relations, Masset said he believed that "some tension or misunderstanding can recur, because each sees the other's politics from their own viewpoint".
"But this is normal and it is also a sign of our closeness," he said.
France's government recalled Masset in February 2019 amid a diplomatic row after then-deputy-premier Luigi Di Maio, from the populist FiveStar Movement met French 'yellow-vest' protesters near Paris.
More recently, foreign minister Antonio Tajani called a vist to Paris in May to protest a French minister's criticism of Italy's hardline migration policy that has included standoffs with humanitarian rescue ships in the Mediterranean.
Masset has been France's ambassador to Italy since 2017 and was previously posted to Rome as an embassy advisor from 1999 to 2002.
