India natural economic partner, key to stability in Indo-Pacific region, says Italian Deputy PM Antonio Tajani

Referring to ‘Joint Strategic Action Plan’ announced by PM Narendra Modi and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni following their meeting in November last at Rio de Janeiro, Jaishankar said that the plan captures their vision for deepening bilateral strategic partnership through concrete outcomes that will benefit both countries.

“In recent years, India has been working closely with like-minded partners to build such resilient and trusted partnerships that we need now to address not only our economic interests but our strategic priorities,” Jaishankar said at an event organised by FICCI, which was also attended by Tajani.

“For us, Italy ranks high in that list. In many sectors, there is a natural complementarity that we need to exploit… Whether it is energy or transport, food processing or light engineering, you have the technologies and best practices that make such collaboration fruitful,” he said.

In his address at the ‘Italy-India Business, Science and Technology Forum’, Tajani said: “India is an important country for stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Stability is crucial to strengthen trade.”

“Italy and India are natural economic partners. Together we want to strengthen our cooperation for a partnership that looks at future through higher education, innovation and research,” he said. “We want to invest more in India, export more to India, and attract more Indian investments in Italy.”

Jaishankar said that the proposed India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), will create a “truly new global axis” for economies, energy resources and communications.