(ANSA) - BELGRADE, JAN 16 - "The hope is to extend the Arctic Endurance mission" and make it "a NATO exercise," "so, in this sense, Germany and Italy are moving in the same direction," said German Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michael Stumpfle at a press conference in Berlin, in response to a question about Italy's refusal to participate in the Greenland mission, which Germany and France are participating in. The spokesman emphasised that bilateral defence cooperation is "excellent." (ANSA).