Italy is eager to enhance its economic collaboration with India. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani has unveiled a Euro 500 million financing line to facilitate Italian companies’ entry into the Indian market. The primary focus lies on industrial partnerships, joint ventures, and co-development initiatives.
Tajani’s message: Speaking with Il Sole 24 Ore, Tajani describes India as a natural strategic partner: the world’s most populous democracy, 1.4 billion people, robust growth (≈7% annually) and a rapidly expanding tech ecosystem.
- Political message: “To the Indian leader [Narendra Modi] I will convey the greetings of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has a very close and productive personal relationship with Modi.”
- “I will share a strong message of openness to dialogue aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace — in Ukraine as well as across the wider Middle East, a region at the heart of our shared interests.”
- A central focus is IMEC, the economic and logistics corridor connecting the Mediterranean, the Gulf and India, to which Italy intends to contribute decisively.
India as a bridge between the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific. Tajani frames IMEC within Italy’s role in the Mediterranean and its growing projection into the Indo-Pacific — increasingly referred to as the “Indo-Mediterranean.” Italy aims to position itself around several key infrastructures:
- the port of Trieste and the Adriatic. Trieste will host an IMEC ministerial meeting next March, as announced by Special Envoy Francesco Maria Talò during the Indo-Mediterranean Business Forum;
- connections with the Balkans and North Africa;
- the Blue & Raman subsea cable linking Genoa to Mumbai to accelerate data flows.
- The implicit goal: strengthening Italy’s standing as a European hub amid the global competition for value chains.
Trade and investment. On the day Italian cuisine was added to UNESCO’s intangible heritage list, food and wine featured among the sectors of bilateral business — including confirmation that the Vinitaly India Roadshow will return next year in Mumbai.
- Over 700 Italian companies already operate in India.
- Clear target: increase bilateral trade from €14 to €20 billion.
- Tools deployed by the “Sistema Italia”:
- a €500 million India credit line;
- over €2 billion in guarantees for loans to Indian buyers of Italian goods;
- digital platforms facilitating business match-making.
- Strong interest in growing Indian investments in Italy, particularly in energy, data centers, hospitality, manufacturing, mobility, defence and space.
Technology and innovation: the core of the mission. India is seen as a potential global high-tech leader: 900 million digital-payment users, 417 patents this year from IIT Madras, and a newly launched $10 billion R&D fund.
- Tajani announces the creation of an Italian innovation center in India to connect:
- startups,
- major tech companies,
- universities and research institutions.
Priority sectors: AI, quantum, biotech, advanced materials, space and cyber.
- Culture as soft power The mission includes the inauguration in Delhi of “Storie condivise” (“Shared Stories”), an exhibition highlighting centuries of exchanges between Italy and India across the Indo-Mediterranean.
- Symbolic message: IMEC, as a concept, “already existed in the time of Emperor Augustus.”
- Italy also aims to offer expertise in cultural-heritage management and museum development.
The underlying thread. Tajani distills his vision into a formula: “More Italy in India and more India in Italy.”
- The bilateral partnership is presented as a lever for peace, shared prosperity and technological innovation — and as a central pillar of Italy’s international posture across Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the wider Middle East.
