India and Italy will sign a dozen agreements in areas ranging from trade and investment to infrastructure when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte hold a virtual summit on Friday.
The meeting, the latest in a series of virtual engagements by Modi following his successful summits with Australia and the European Union (EU), is part of New Delhi’s enhanced focus on Europe in the context of a global rebalancing in post-Covid. -19. script. Major EU players, such as Germany and France, have also shown increased interest in the Indo-Pacific region.
People familiar with the developments said, on condition of anonymity, that about a dozen agreements and memorandums of understanding are expected to be signed at the summit covering areas such as trade, investment, infrastructure, environment, fisheries, media and movies.
Read also | Working with India to find solutions to the Covid pandemic: Envoy from Finland
The two sides will explore the possibility of increasing Italian investments in India and enhancing cooperation in defense and manufacturing under the Make in India initiative, the people said.
Both countries are ready to firmly put behind the 2012 killing of two Indian crew members of a fishing boat off the coast of Kerala by Italian marines guarding an Enrica Lexie oil tanker, an incident that brought bilateral relations to a record low. .
“Except for the brief lull caused by the Enrica Lexie incident for some time, the two countries have always enjoyed a cordial relationship since they established political ties in 1947,” said one of the people cited above.
Referring to the ruling of a UN arbitral tribunal earlier this year that Italian marines are entitled to immunity in relation to their actions, the person said: “Following the arbitral tribunal’s verdict, Italy wants to build solid economic relations on the basis of the political relationship “.
India views Italy, the EU’s third-largest economy after Brexit with strong manufacturing, technology and design capabilities, as a strong partner for the Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-sufficient India) initiatives.
Starting in January, India will also join the G20 troika alongside Italy and Saudi Arabia. India and Italy will be part of the troika for 2021 and 2022, when New Delhi will assume the presidency of the G20.
Italy is currently India’s fifth largest trading partner in the EU, and bilateral trade amounted to € 9.52 billion in 2019. However, India ranks 16th as the country of origin for Italian imports, and experts believe there is a considerable growth potential.
Some 600 large Italian companies are active in India, while some 4,000 Indian students and 250,000 workers, mainly in the agricultural sector, are in Italy.
Italy has traditionally supported India in multilateral forums, and the two countries are currently working on a roadmap for a more substantive engagement, including a migration mobility partnership agreement, the people said.
.
