India and Italy have cleared the way for a partnership on defence manufacturing focussed on joint production, innovation, and design, opening the door for defence equipment producers from both countries to now come together. Work on the same have been in the making over the past two years.
On Thursday, the nations signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation during the official visit of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to India.
Both nations have also decided to step up their bilateral relation into a strategic partnership.
Meloni’s visit is the first high level bilateral visit from Italy in the last five years. The first female Italian PM, Meloni chose India as her inaugural international visit as a matter of strategic choice, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra told the media at a briefing.
“It was clear during the discussions that with legacy issues behind this, the door is now open for industries on both sides to corporate more strongly in this area, particularly in the field of manufacturing,” Kwatra said.
Military exercises will also be deepened and expanded to all levels of the armed forces and more maritime cooperation.
Migration & trade in focus
A declaration of intent on migration and mobility has also been signed between the two nations.
Bilateral trade and investment, in which Italy remains at an all time high of $15 billion. “The prime minister has underlined the scale and range of opportunities that exist in the Indian economic ecosystem for the Italian industry to invest in India,” Kwatra said
A CEO roundtable between the business delegations of both countries is also slated to take place, chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Italian counterpart. Resilience in supply chain is also a focus area.
Both nations have also identified the need for more corporation in the strategic sectors of space, cyber and sea. Work will now begin to identify specific areas of partnership in each of these domains.
More number of joint exercises on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief was also pointed out.
Meloni will also be the chief guest and keynote speaker at the 8th Raisina Dialogue, which will get underway Thursday evening.
