Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the eighth edition of the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on March 2, 2023.
Key points
- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was the Chief Guest of the three-day Dialogue.
- Raisina Dialogue is India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-strategy. The theme of the 2023 Edition was “Provocation, Uncertainty, Turbulence: Lighthouse in the Tempest.”
India-Italy
- Inaugurating the 2023 edition of the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi Italian Prime Minister Meloni focused on the importance of identity and the shared peninsular cultural heritage between India and Italy, citing the example of the Pompeii Lakshmi, an ancient Indian statue found in the historic Italian city in the 1930s.
- She said, global coordination on climate change should not be a zero-sum game and Indo-Pacific countries led by India have a strong role to play in this regard.
- Ms Meloni noted that India is a key player in the Indo-Pacific and Italy is a key stakeholder in the Mediterranean.
- She stated that what happens in the Indo-Pacific has direct consequences for Europe.
- The Italian Prime Minister’s India visit comes as the two countries celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations this year.
- India and Italy on March 2 announced the elevation of the bilateral relationship to the level of strategic partnership while also concluding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation.
- The two countries also concluded a Declaration of Intent (DOI) on migration and mobility on which Mr. Modi said once the mutual settlements came into being, it “will usher in the new era of mutual cooperation in many fields, especially education.”
