“The Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, held a meeting today, by video and tele-conferencing, with the Minister of Commerce and Industry of India, Piyush Goyal.
In their talks, the Ministers took stock of bilateral relations between the two countries, in view of the virtual summit between the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, and Prime Minister Modi, scheduled for 6 November, focusing on the economic relations between Italy and India, which, before the pandemic, in 2019, had achieved record figures, in terms of both trade and direct investments. In particular, the two Ministers reviewed the situation of Italian investments and the arrival in India, in recent years, of new qualified operators in the very promising renewable energy and gas sectors. They also exchanged views on the instruments best suited to relaunch trade between the two countries. Minister Di Maio then expressed his intention to call a new session, in the first half of 2021, of the Joint Economic Commission, the main institutional forum for bilateral economic cooperation.
Minister Di Maio then shared with Minister Goyal the Italian priorities for the G20 Presidency, which Italy will assume on 1 December 2020, and which will then pass to India in 2021. The promotion of health as a global public good will be central to the agenda of the Italian G20 Presidency, especially with regard to the multilateral commitment to fighting the pandemic. At the same time, the Minister hoped that the G20 could make a decisive contribution to laying the foundations for a balanced, inclusive and sustainable global economic recovery. In this perspective, the two Ministers agreed on the importance of continuing to inspire international action consistently with the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement (COP 21), which are fundamental pillars for building sustainable and inclusive social and economic development”.
