Relations between Italy and Germany are "excellent" prime minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Friday after a meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Our meeting confirmed the excellent relationship between Italy and Germany," Gentiloni told reporters at a joint press conference with Merkel.
The strength of Italy's economic ties with Germany was "always surprising", Gentiloni stated.
"The relations Italy has with the main European countries - Germany, France, Spain and others - are crucial, irrespective of the size of their economies," he said.
In 2018, Italy and other EU states must do their level best to respond to "the demand for Europe that exists,", Gentiloni said, without elaborating.