Meloni receives Modi: alliance on investments and Hormuz

Strengthening cooperation on defence, trade, research, investment, artificial intelligence and the fight against terrorism and human trafficking. With a further objective already shared: to reach a trade exchange of EUR 20 billion by 2029 (today it is worth EUR 14 billion), on the wave of the EU-India free trade agreement signed on 27 January and soon to enter into force.

Yesterday Giorgia Meloni welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had just landed at Fiumicino airport (he was met by Deputy Prime Minister and Farnesina Minister Antonio Tajani) with a private dinner offered in his honour at the Casina Valadier, ahead of the Italia-India summit to be held today at Villa Pamphilj. This is Modi's first bilateral visit to Italia, after attending the G7 in Borgo Egnazia in June 2024 and the G20 in Rome in October 2021. And it is the first official mission to the capital by an Indian premier in the last 26 years. It is strategic, especially in light of the Imec corridor construction site, the Cotton Road that will connect Europe to the Indo-Pacific via the Gulf countries and represent a more than valid alternative to the Silk Road to China.

The face-to-face meeting between Meloni and Modi is the seventh in three years and is proof of an increasingly intense dialogue, as also witnessed by the missions of other government representatives: Tajani himself, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, and Enterprise Minister Adolfo Urso. The aim of the bilateral will be to raise to the rank of 'special' the Italia-India strategic partnership launched in 2023, which led to the launch of the 2025-2029 Action Plan. In a joint statement to be signed this morning, the two leaders identify new directions for cooperation, institutionalising annual meetings, announcing the Italia-India Year of Culture and Tourism 2027, and strengthening the Innovit India initiative to bring the respective innovation ecosystems closer together.

But international dossiers are also on the table for Meloni and Modi, who concludes with a stop in Rome a trip that has seen him in the Emirates, Holland, Sweden and Norway: the war in Iran and the closure of Hormuz (India, which has joined the Coalition of the Willing for a mission in the Strait after the ceasefire, is the third largest oil exporter and Modi has just launched an energy austerity plan: see Il Sole 24 Ore of 12 May), the conflict in Ukraine and security in the Indo-Pacific. Stone table, relations with Donald Trump's US and Xi's China.

The two heads of government will then attend a lunch with the top management of large Italian industrial groups (including Fincantieri, Leonardo, Ferrovie, Almaviva, Maire; there are over 700 companies operating in India) and Indian ones (such as Rpg Group, Upl Limited, Waaree Energies Ltd, Tata Advanced Systems). Crucial contacts to push investments. Many agreements will be signed, from maritime transport to agriculture, from higher education to critical minerals, from museum cooperation to the fight against economic and financial crimes. The 'Melodi' catchphrase, as they call the special relationship between Meloni and Modi on Indian social media, is set to continue.