India, Italy ink six pacts to bolster bilateral cooperation; discuss joint effort to counter terrorism, cyber crime

New Delhi: Bolstering cooperation between both nations on several fronts, India and Italy on October 30 signed six pacts, including in areas of railway safety and mutual trade investments. “Discussed several avenues of cooperation between India and Italy in our wide-ranging meetings today,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated while issuing a joint statement with his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni.
PM Modi also said that both the countries discussed the challenges which the world is facing due to terrorism and cyber crime, adding that India and Italy are committed to enhance tourism and people-to-people ties.
Among other major agreement, India and Italy have signed an MoU on 70 years of diplomatic relations as well as on cooperation in the field of energy, executive protocol on cultural cooperation.
Earlier in the day, Modi and Gentiloni held extensive talks on ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations. The visiting leader was accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Ahead of his visit, Gentiloni had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger.
Prime Minister Modi and premier Gentiloni had also interacted with 12 Indian and 19 Italian business leaders for boosting economic and investment cooperation, said Raveesh Kumar, External Affairs Minister spokesperson. The meeting assumes significance as Gentiloni’s visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade.
As per official figures, Italy is India’s fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17.

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