India-Italy Bilateral Summit: 15 Pacts signed

On November 6, 2020, PM Modi is to hold a virtual bilateral summit with his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte. The leaders are to sign 15 pacts in the field of energy, trade, ship building and culture.

Highlights

The summit is to explore possibilities of Italian investments in India especially in defence. Also, the leaders will discuss on hosting G20 summit. Italy agreed to host G20 summit in 2021 on India’s request. India is to host the G20 summit in 2022.

Indo Italian High-Level Dialogue

The summit was preceded by the Indo Italian High-Level Dialogue. During the dialogue, the Italian firm Fincantieri enhanced it presence in India. The long-standing partnership of the firm with the CSL (Cochin Shipyard Limited) of GoI was further deepened. The firm had signed contracts with CSL under which it delivered the tankers Shakti and Deepak to the Indian Navy. Fincantieri along with National Institute of Ocean Technology built the research vessel “Sagar Nidhi”. The understanding between Fincantieri and CSL is based on the following cooperation

• Naval Automation
• Ship Repair
• Training Indian Personnel
• Design, procure and local construction of new vessels.

India-Italy

Italy is the fifth largest trading partner of India in the European Union after Germany, Belgium, UK and France. In 2019, the bilateral trade between India and Italy stood at 9.52 billion Euros. More than 600 large Italian companies are active in India. It covers varied sectors such as textiles, fashion garments, infrastructure, automotive components, chemicals, infrastructure, insurance and energy confectionery.

Key Takeaways of the summit

15 Pacts

During the summit, India and Italy signed 15 agreements in various sectors such as fisheries, energy, ship building, energy, etc.

2020-24 Action Plan

The 2020-24 Action plan was framed during the summit. The four pillars of the action plan were coordination in multilateral forums, political dialogue at bilateral trade, partnership in science and technology and cultural cooperation.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2020