Nudging to scale up India-Italy bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership, the Prime Ministers of India and Italy announced the establishment of a Startup Bridge between the two countries on Thursday. The leaders did so while laying special emphasis on increasing cooperation in areas like Renewable Energy, Green Hydrogen, IT, semiconductors, telecom and space. This year India and Italy are celebrating the 75th anniversary of their bilateral relations and on this occasion, the Ministers emphasised on further strengthening the economic ties. Italy is among India's top five trading partners in the European Union (EU) and among the largest investors in India, as stated by the Ministry of External Affairs in the India-Italy relation document.

This is the first visit to India of Prime Minister Meloni, Italy's first female and youngest Prime Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, discussing deepening ties in StartUps and defence too. "There is another area where the two countries are starting a new chapter, and that is defence cooperation. Opportunities are being created for co-production and co-development in the defence manufacturing sector in India, which can be beneficial for both the countries. We have also decided to organise regular joint exercises and training courses between the armed forces of both the countries," said PM Modi.

Had fruitful talks with PM @GiorgiaMeloni, which were focussed on boosting India-Italy cooperation in sectors such as commerce, renewable energy, IT, space and upcoming sectors like semi-conductors and green hydrogen. Deepening ties in StartUps and defence were discussed too. pic.twitter.com/wL7BStJFw4

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 2, 2023

Prime Minister Modi highlighted that the ongoing talks between the two countries on the Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement are of special importance. The early conclusion of this agreement will further strengthen people-to-people relations. "In order to boost people-to-people relations between India and Italy, we also talked about augmenting cooperation in education and culture. Close India-Italy relations will greatly benefit the people of our countries," the PM Modi tweeted.

Both Prime Ministers laid special emphasis on increasing cooperation in areas like Renewable Energy, Green Hydrogen, IT, semiconductors, telecom and space.

They met in New Delhi during her visit to India. This is the first visit to India of Prime Minister Meloni, Italy's first female and youngest Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Modi also welcomed Italy's active participation in the Indo-Pacific. "It is a matter of great pleasure that Italy has decided to join the Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative. This will enable us to identify concrete themes for enhancing our cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Reforms in multilateral institutions are necessary to reflect global realities in a better manner."

PM Modi highlighted that the ongoing talks between the two countries on the Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement are of special importance.

All countries have been affected by the crisis of food, fuel and fertilizers arising out of the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, highlighted the Indian Prime Minister during the two Ministers' joint press meet. "These have had a particularly negative impact on the developing countries. We have expressed our shared concern about this and have emphasised upon joint efforts to solve these problems. We are also giving priority to this subject during India's G20 presidency," he added.

On Thursday, PM Modi had also addressed the meeting of the Foreign Minister of G20 via video message. Addressing the gathering, he underlined why India chose the theme of 'One Earth, One Family, One Future' for its G20 Presidency. He explained that it signals the need for unity of purpose as well as the unity of action. He expressed the belief that today's meeting will reflect the spirit of coming together for achieving common and concrete objectives.

"The world looks upon the G20 to ease the challenges of growth, development, economic resilience, disaster resilience, financial stability, transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, and food and energy security", the Prime Minister remarked as he noted that G20 has the capacity to build consensus and deliver concrete results in all these areas.