India and Italy have decided to elevate their bilateral ties to the level of ‘Strategic Partnership’, opening a new chapter on defence cooperation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced after holding comprehensive talks with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni.

On a two-day state visit, her first after being elected as Prime Minister last year, Meloni also announced that Italy was joining the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative as the two nations celebrate the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations.

Key points of the meeting:

• The two countries have decided to hold joint exercises and training courses between the armed forces of the two countries on a regular basis.

• The two sides also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of migration and mobility, with a view to countering irregular migration and trafficking of human beings, and to examine pathways to facilitate labour mobility and promote fair working conditions, with the aim of addressing the needs of their respective economies.

• They agreed to expand cooperation in the field of space and welcomed bilateral exchanges and took stock of the wide potential of possible joint research projects in areas such as remote sensing, satellite communication, lunar exploration, gravitational wave detection and practical applications of space technology between ISRO and ASI Italy.

• India-Italy Startup Bridge was established. 

• The two leaders also agreed to assess and address potential risks associated with virtual assets and new financial technologies that may be abused for the purpose of money laundering and financing terrorism.

• They also agreed to take steps to ensure that such virtual assets are subject to Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Financing for Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations.

India-Italy Relations

• The classical languages, Sanskrit and Latin both belong to the Indo-European language family. 

• Italian port cities were important trading posts on the spice route. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo, during his travels to the east, also traveled to India in the 13th century and wrote about his experiences.

• Political relations between India and Italy were established in 1947. There has been a regular exchange of visits at political and official levels between both countries.

• With a bilateral trade of $13.229 billion in 2021-22, which is 53.86 per cent increase over the previous financial year. Italy is India’s fourth largest trading partner in the EU, after Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

• India ranks 15th as country of origin of Italian imports, accounting for 1.5 per cent of Italian imports. 

• The top items of exports from India to Italy are: organic basic product, clothing, precious metals and other non precious metals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, pigments and yarns, motor vehicles & parts, refined petroleum products, etc. 

• Indian companies in Italy are mainly in IT, electronics and engineering sectors. Over 600 large Italian companies are active in India, covering varied sectors such as fashion and garments, textiles and textile machinery, automotive and automotive components, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionery, insurance, etc.

• Italy ranks 17th in FDI inflows in India during April 2000 to June 2022 with FDI inflow of $3.20 billion during this period.

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