Economic cooperation, maritime security dominate talks during Italian Deputy PM Tajani’s India visit

Economic cooperation, maritime security and regional connectivity featured prominently during Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s top leadership on Wednesday, underlining the growing strategic depth of India-Italy relations.

Tajani is on his second visit to India this year, accompanied by a large business delegation, signalling Italy’s renewed focus on expanding trade and investment ties with one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies. During his New Delhi engagements, Tajani met PM Modi, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

According to people familiar with the discussions, PM Modi and Tajani reviewed cooperation on maritime security, particularly the safety of sea lanes of communication crucial for bilateral and global trade. Connectivity initiatives, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), also figured prominently in the talks. The Indian side highlighted opportunities to combine India’s skilled workforce and expanding manufacturing base with advanced Italian technologies.

Posting on social media after the meeting, Modi said both sides appreciated the progress made under the Italy-India Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029, which spans trade, investment, innovation, defence, space, connectivity, counter-terrorism, education and people-to-people ties. He added that the India-Italy partnership continues to strengthen and deliver global benefits.

Jaishankar said he and Tajani reviewed cooperation across political, defence, technological, maritime and economic domains, and also discussed joint efforts to counter terror financing, including coordination at the Financial Action Task Force. Regional and global developments, such as the situation in West Asia and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, were also exchanged.

Officials said maritime security cooperation in the broader Indo-Mediterranean space emerged as a key theme, reflecting both countries’ shared interest in stable trade routes and a rules-based international order. Jaishankar also thanked Tajani for Italy’s message of solidarity following a terror incident in New Delhi last month.

India and Italy have recently intensified counter-terrorism cooperation, including launching a joint initiative on terror financing during PM Modi’s meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the G20.

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Tajani is scheduled to meet Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai on Thursday. In an interview, Tajani said Italy aims to raise bilateral trade from around €14 billion to €20 billion by 2029, citing growing cooperation in the “common Indo-Mediterranean area” and expanding business engagement.