New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte will hold a virtual bilateral summit on Friday.
"The virtual summit will allow the two leaders to comprehensively review the broad framework of the bilateral ties, and exchange views on major regional and global issues of mutual concern," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
India views Italy as an important member of the European Union and values its positive contribution in furthering India-EU ties, it added.
According to the statement, India-Italy relations are marked by regular high-level exchanges which saw incoming visits by Italian prime ministers in 2017 and 2018.
According to sources, the bilateral trade stood at 9.52 billion euros in 2019. Italy is India's fifth-largest trading partner in the EU, after Germany, Belgium, UK and France.
Around 600 large Italian companies are active in India, covering various sectors such as fashion and garments, textiles and textile machinery, automotive components, infrastructure, chemicals, energy confectionary, insurance among others. Several Indian companies are also active in Italy.
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Several government-to-government and private sector agreements or MoUs are under finalisation and will be concluded during the Friday summit, the MEA said.
India and Italy share a warm and multifaceted relationship based on strong historical ties, common democratic traditions, rule of law and a shared goal of international peace and stability. India views Italy as an important member of the EU and values its positive contribution in furthering India-EU ties.
India and Italy are ancient civilisations but young states (Italy having been reunified only in 1861). These two ancient civilisations have known, interacted, and traded with each other for over 2000 years. Modern-day contacts between the two nations were formed through exchanges between the intellectuals from both sides.
As history goes, Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore visited Italy in 1926, on the invitation of Carlo Formichi, a Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Rome. Mahatma Gandhi visited Rome in 1931 on his way back to India from the Round Table Conference held at London.
Leaders of the Indian freedom struggle read the works of the Italian revolutionary Mazzini of early 19th century, who worked for the Democratic Republic of Italy. Indian troops, serving with the British Indian Army, were active in Italy during World War II.
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