Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini speaks during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Milan, Italy, August 28, 2018. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday that France should show greater “solidarity and sensibility” on immigration and suspend its policy of turning back migrants who try to enter France at the Ventimiglia border crossing.

French President Emmanuel Macron “is the first who should show solidarity and sensibility by reopening the border at Ventimiglia”, Salvini said after meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Milan.

Salvini also said that talks with Germany have been going on for weeks and that an agreement to take back migrants who come through Italy and reach the German border is “close to hand”.

“The important thing for Italy is that it be a zero-sum exchange, which means we’re willing to take back in our country the migrants involved in secondary movements as long as the same number of migrants are taken away from our country,” Salvini said.