ITALIAN NAVY’S multipurpose offshore patrol vessel ITS Francesco Morosini made a port-call to Mumbai Thursday. Speaking to The Indian Express about the importance of the port-call, H E Vincenzo De Luca, Ambassador of Italy to India, told Sandeep Singh that this is a reflection of the new phase of relations between the two countries which have now elevated from bilateral to strategic partnership. He also said that with the rising importance of India in the global scene, it has emerged as one of the priority areas of investment. Edited excerpts: What does the arrival of the vessel to Mumbai signify for India-Italy relationship? It is a historical visit. This represents a very important step in further enhancement of the relations between Italy and India especially after the summit we had in March between the two prime ministers when Italian PM Giorgia Meloni came to India. On that occasion we elevated the bilateral relations to a strategic partnership for the first time in the history of relations between the two countries. So the visit of our Naval patrol vessel to Mumbai is a perfect example of this new phase of relations. Strategic partnership means we will now collaborate more in very sensitive sectors like Defence, Space and cyber, and further promote bilateral trade. It is also very important because during the last summit we had almost finalised the agreement on the Defence sector. This means we have an opportunity for participation of Italian companies in the programme of Make-in-India and self reliant India. Also, this is not the only visit. In Italy we received the visit of two Indian vessels – Indian frigate Tabar in July 2021 at the port of Naples and the visit of the training ship INS Tarangini in Syracuse in September 2022. So there was an exchange of visits and Italy also participated in the joint exercise between the European Union and India. This vessel’s visit comes almost a decade after the unfortunate incident involving two Italian marines off the coast of Kerala. Does this show that India and Italy have moved forward in terms of relationship ? Yes. With a strong collaboration between the two governments and two ministers of foreign affairs, we solved the issue of marines. After the decision of the tribunal in 2020, in 2021 we recognised the jurisdiction in Italy and compensation in India. This has been a very important step and has allowed us to make progress in our relations. Also, the exchange of visits of prime ministers in the last four-five years have been very important and now we are at a level of strategic partnership. How do you see trade relations deepening? Italy's bilateral trade with India is 15 billion euro. While it stood at 9 billion euro before the Covid-19 pandemic and reduced to 7.5 billion euro during the pandemic, we have doubled it between 2020 and 2022 and I think we will make further progress. Besides Defence, we are also very much involved in energy transition in India. We now have a stock of Italian investment of 5-6 billion euro in India. There is more and more interest from the business community to invest in India. India is one of the priority areas of investment around the world. If you see the Italian economic newspapers, you will see articles and analysis about the potential of India especially after the report of India's population overtaking China and also because of the growing importance of India in the global scene and the role that it is playing in the framework of Global South in G20. These are all elements that have raised the importance of India not only as an investment destination but as a global partner. What is the progress on the EU-India free trade agreement? Italy is one of the supporters of the process and the EU is fully involved and committed to its success. Obviously there are two sides and we have to find solutions for both sides and it is not easy. But the process is going on. After 10 years of no negotiation, we started negotiation last year after the summit of Porto in Portugal. The two sides have worked a lot in the last few months. I can't predict a time frame but the important aspect is that the process is going on and both sides are speeding up. The agreement between the EU and India will be a game changer.
