France says European satellite venture talks are making progress

PARIS (Reuters) -Efforts to set up a European space project alliance involving Italy's Leonardo, France's Thales and Airbus and aimed at challenging Elon Musk's Starlink are making progress, said France's industry minister on Thursday.

"It's a project which we support. Talks are moving forward in a constructive manner," said France's Marc Ferracci during a meeting in Paris with his Italian counterpart Adolfo Urso.

Urso said negotiations were aiming at giving the two countries an equal footing in the project, endorsed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Paris Airshow in June.

Under the so-called "Project Bromo", named after an Indonesian volcano, Leonardo, Thales and Airbus have been exploring plans to set up a new satellite manufacturing company to better compete with the U.S. and China, but so far progress has been modest.

Leonardo's Chief Executive Roberto Cingolani said last month that the three companies would make another assessment on where the deal stands by the end of July.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Alvise Armellini, editing by Giulia Segreti)

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