'Italy intends to grow trade with India by €6 bn'

Italy intends to grow trade with India to €20 billion by 2029 from the current level of about €14 billion, and Italian investments into the country were up by €500 million during the first half of 2025 alone, Italian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Antonio Tajani said ahead of visit to New Delhi, his second this year.

- Rezaul H Laskar

Tajani, who is set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar during his visit, said in an interview that Italy fully backs an ambitious free trade agreement between India and the European Union (EU). Expressing confidence in a “positive result”, he said there is “too much at stake to miss this opportunity”.

What are the areas of focus for your visit?

India is a strategic partner for Italy. With my visit, I intend to provide further impetus to cooperation at large. Innovation will be a protagonist. Italy and India will launch a concrete initiative ~ a centre will be created to foster structured dialogue between startup companies and research Clusters [and to serve as] a platform for collaborations in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and more.

Boosting trade and investments will be another key focus.

On Thursday, we will have the third Italy-India Business Forum in a year to stimulate synergies in specific sectors such as automotive components, agri-food industry and waste-to-energy.