Why in the News?

Prime Ministers of India and Italy held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and announced a Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029.

Key Highlights of India-Italy Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029

• Economic Cooperation and Investments: 
  • Fostering partnerships in automotive, semiconductors, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing.
  • Strengthening bilateral trade and investments through the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation and the Joint Working Group on Food Processing.
• Connectivity: Enhance collaboration on maritime and land infrastructure within the framework of India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).
• Science and Technology: Agreed on expanding cooperation in critical technologies like AI & digitalization, with implementation of 2025-27 Executive Programme for Scientific & Technological Cooperation.
  • Introduced a new Indo-Italian Innovation and Incubation Exchange Program to foster academic & industrial collaboration.
• Space Sector: Expand Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) collaboration on Earth observation, heliophysics, and space exploration, with emphasis on lunar science.
• Energy Transition:  Both countries agreed on organizing "Tech Summits" & strengthening alliances like Global Biofuels Alliance & International Solar Alliance. 
• Defense cooperation: Decided to hold annual Joint Defense Consultative (JDC) meetings & Joint Staff Talks (JST) to improve coordination in defense matters.
  • Discussed establishing a Defense Industrial Roadmap to foster cooperation in defense manufacturing.

About India – Italy Relations

• Historical Connect: Italian port cities were important trading posts on the ancient spice route. 
  • The Venetian merchant Marco Polo, during his travels to the east, travelled to India in the 13th century.
• Strategic: 
  • Both countries became Strategic Partners in 2023 with enhanced cooperation in Indo-Pacific and Mediterranean regions with Italy joining India-led initiatives such as Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).
  • Italy exited China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2023 after joining it in 2019 as the only G7 member. This aligns with India’s efforts to counter China's growing dominance in Europe.
• Economic: 
  • Italy is India’s 4th largest trading partner in the EU after Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.
  • Bilateral trade in 2023-24 reached US$ 14.56 billion with India’s exports at US$ 8.76 billion.
  • Italy ranks 18th in terms of FDI inflows into India during April 2000 to June 2024.
• Defence and Security:  Signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement (2023) to enhance collaboration in research, industrial cooperation, and maritime domain awareness along with holding regular talks via platforms like the Italy-India Military Cooperation Group.
  • Collaboration on counter-terrorism through bilateral and multilateral forums like the UN, Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) and Financial Action Task force (FATF).
• Environment and Climate: India-led initiatives joined by Italy include International Solar Alliance (ISA), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA).

• People-to-people ties: Italy hosts the second largest Indian diaspora in the EU estimated at 2 lakhs including PIOs.
  • Both side signed a Migration and Mobility Agreement in 2023 to facilitate temporary residence for Indian students up to 12 months after their graduation. 
• Other Emerging Areas: The Blue and Space Economy conference, attended by Italian and Indian institutions and companies, was held recently where both sides discussed cooperation in Space sector and Blue Economy.
  • Previously, Italy and India collaborated in the development of the Chandrayaan-2 mission which also carried a laser instrument developed by the Italian space agency.

Way Forward

• Implementation of the Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029, especially in sectors like defence and space.
• Close alignment of India’s Act East Policy with EU’s Indo-Pacific Strategy to effectively counter China’s dominance in Pacific Ocean. Italy joining IPOI is a step in right direction.
• Early conclusion of EU-India Free Trade Agreement along with removing non-tariff barriers such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
• Leveraging multilateral platforms like the G20, G7, and EU to address shared challenges like terrorism, climate change, etc.
• Deepening Cultural and People-to-People ties to bridge the trust deficit through festivals, tourism, and academic partnerships and allowing more Indians to work in Italy to counter ‘Demographic Winter’ currently faced by Italy.