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English Translation of Press Statement by Prime Minister during State Visit of Prime Minister of Italy to India (October 30, 2017)

October 30, 2017

Prime Minister Gentiloni,
Distinguished delegates,
Members of the media,


At the outset, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Prime Minister Gentiloni and his delegation in India. I am thankful to Prime Minister Gentiloni for accepting my invitation to visit India.

Excellency,

Your visit to India is taking place at a historic moment, when next year in March we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries.

In our discussions today, I felt that both of us want to take our bilateral relationship to new heights. And, this visit of yours has provide us an opportunity to set new priorities.

In our discussions today, we have reviewed the full range of bilateral relations and cooperation. We have also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Friends,

India and Italy are two large economies, and the respective strengths of our economies provide us ample opportunities to strengthen our commercial cooperation.

There is a lot of potential for our bilateral trade of about 8.8 billion dollars to grow much further.

I am glad that a high level business delegation has accompanies Prime Minister Gentiloni on this visit.

In our interaction with industry leaders from both countries, we felt a lot of optimism among them for the future potential for cooperation.

We would like to encourage greater participation of Italian companies in our flagship programmes and projects. There are immense possibilities for them to collaborate with Indian companies.

In Smart Cities, Food Processing, Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure and in several other sectors, our requirements match very well with Italy’s strengths and capabilities.

I am very pleased that Italy is participating at a large scale in World Food India this week as a Focus Country.

Science and Technology is another sector in which we want to enhance our cooperation. Italy has been a long standing partner with us in this sector, and has been emerging as a favourite destination for higher education of Indian students.

We also discussed our cultural contacts and cooperation. I was pleased to know that a lot of people in Italy have a deep and abiding interest in Indian culture, cuisine, cinema, music, dance, yoga and Ayurveda.

We will strengthen our cooperation in tourism and people to people exchanges to strengthen such links further.

Friends,

In addition to bilateral issues, we also exchanged views on regional and global issues.

In today’s world, we face new challenges and threats every day. We discussed in detail some of the emerging security challenges facing the world. We are both committed to fight terrorism in all its forms, and to strengthen our cooperation in cyber security.

We are also committed to cooperation and coordinate with each other on issues of shared interest in international fora.

Friends,

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude towards Prime Minister Gentiloni for his visit to India and for giving us an opportunity to have such positive and productive discussion.

Thank you.
Thank you very much.

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