Italian PM Giorgia Meloni receives ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi. (Image credits: ANI)
Brushing aside past strains, India and Italy have decided to elevate bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership to ensure they achieve full potential.
The partnership was forged during the visit of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to New Delhi early this week.
The Italian prime minister, keen to develop ties with New Delhi, made a strategic choice in making India her maiden prime ministerial trip to Asia.
As the first woman prime minister of Italy and one of the youngest leaders to occupy that post, Meloni (46) also generated much interest in the Indian diplomatic and strategic circles.
Indo-Italian relations had been strained for a long time in the wake of the Italian marine firing episode, and the Westland helicopter scandal controversy.
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However, since 2017, attempts have been made to put bilateral relations back on track. Meloni’s visit is part of that effort. And the agreement on strategic partnership shows India-Italian ties are back to normal.
During her visit, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence cooperation and agreed to work closely in a number of other areas ranging from maritime, to space, cyber, design, innovation, manufacturing and supply chain resilience.
They also discussed ways to enhance economic cooperation, trade and investment. Bilateral trade is around $ 15 billion, which is far below potential and the two sides agreed to increase it significantly in the near future.
A key highlight of Meloni’s visit was the establishment of the Startup Bridge between the two countries to serve as the technology infrastructure and common platform through which future programmes will be run.
Meloni, who was Chief Guest at the security conference, Raisina Dialogue, in Delhi on March 2, surprised her host and other guests when she declared her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as the “most popular leader in the world”.
Later, during her discussion in Delhi with Modi, they focussed on deepening cooperation in defence, trade, energy and counter-terrorism areas.
Meloni and Modi had met briefly on the sidelines of the Bali G-20 summit in November last year. In Delhi, they held a more detailed discussion to deepen and strengthen relations for the two countries’ mutual benefit.
She was the third Italian prime minister to visit India in the past decade after Paolo Gentiloni in 2017 and Guiseppe Conte in 2018.
But Meloni generated more interest for several reasons. She is not only Italy’s first female prime minister, but also the leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), a party whose fascist links have raised serious concerns in Europe and elsewhere at a time when extremist right-wing outfits are on the rise in the West.
In addition, Meloni also heads a coalition whose two partners are known to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Italian prime minister came to India when the Ukraine war has sharply divided the western world and the rest of the countries on how to deal with Russia for its invasion of the neighbouring country.
This was also the key reason why G-20 foreign ministers could not agree on a joint communique following their meeting in Delhi.
Staying with NATO
When Meloni came to power in October last year, many anticipated her to break ranks with NATO and move towards Hungary, which is close to Russia.
But she surprised her critics by remaining firmly with NATO and supporting its policies on the Ukraine war.
Her stand on Ukraine is significant, as this is in stark contrast to the position of her coalition partner and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has strongly opposed sanctions and other attempts to isolate Russia.
Meloni held a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week in Rome where she reaffirmed her commitment to Kyiv.
Her visit was preceded by Italian Defence Minister Matteo Perego Di Cremnago’s trip to India last week when he held a meeting on defence cooperation with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on the sidelines of the Aero India show in Bengaluru.
The purpose
Meloni’s visit to India came at a time when a series of engagements between the Indian leadership and European leaders were also being held.
But her visit was also to normalise ties with New Delhi.
Bilateral relations were severely strained during 2012-2015 over the Italian marine episode and the ban on Italian defence manufacturers in the wake of the Augusta Westland helicopter deal controversy. The Italian marines were arrested for shooting dead two Indian fishermen on the Kerala coast.
The strains were eased to a large extent after the marines, who enjoyed immunity under Italian law, were allowed to return home on paying compensation to the family of the dead fishermen.
New Delhi had decided not to pursue the case further to put relations back on track.
The engagement between the two defence ministers also indicated that the ban on Italian defence companies was no longer valid and the two sides were ready to resume cooperation.
An astute politician
Meloni has so far proved to be an astute politician. She has prioritised stabilising the Italian economy rather than reviving Benito Mussolini’s fascist movement as many had feared.
Her predecessor, Mario Draghi, had agreed to rigorous monitoring and auditing to receive €190 billion from the European Union’s NextGeneration scheme for five years.
Meloni came to power at a time when the EU is reviewing its ‘unanimity vote’ to project a strong voice on foreign affairs, defence and energy policy. The unanimity vote allows any of the 27 members of the EU to scuttle a policy by opposing it.
There were concerns that Meloni’s signature issues like ‘Italy First’ and attitude towards illegal immigration and hostility to the LGBTQ+ community or abortions will come to centre stage during her regime.
There were worries as well on whether Meloni would accept the stringent conditions from Brussels before each tranche of payment under the NextGeneration scheme is released by the EU.
But Meloni seems to be aware that her victory last year was more of a reflection of voters’ apathy and disillusionment with the old guard and the political system, than support for her ideology.
Italy had seven governments under six prime ministers since 2011.
She knows that as long as she does not ruffle feathers by pushing her radical agenda, neither the US nor the European leadership will be keen to rock her boat.
Meloni also faces the challenge of keeping her right-wing and unpredictable partners in check to ensure both political and economic stability in Italy.
However, it remains to be seen how well she plays her cards to keep her disparate backers satisfied and agree that she remains their best bet.
