Italy will host a meeting of Foreign Ministers from countries in India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) in the second half of the year, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday, called the proposed route, also known as Cotton Road.
Tajani, who speaks of Ficci in Italy-India, the Scientific and Technology Forum, said the corridor offers a major opportunity for global trade in the middle of the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and the growing tariffs.
Tajani also stated that Italy promotes early conclusion of free trade agreement in India-Eu, which he expects to be signed soon.
“Our goal is to achieve a situation without tariffs,” he said, adding that Italy focuses on strengthening exports and investments through this initiative.
In order to connect to high growth markets, Tajani announced a new export action plan to place India and Asia among the best Italian strategic partners.
“Italy and India are natural economic partners,” he said.
“We want to invest more in India. We want to export more in India and want more Indian investments in my country. We also want more Indian companies (workers) in Italy,” he added.
The aim of IMEC is to support business and economic links by connecting India with SAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and further to Europe.
In the years 2023-24, bilateral trade in the goods between India and Italy reached about $ 14.57 billion, with Indian exports to Italy totaling $ 8.77 billion and importing from Italy of $ 5.80 billion.
Italy is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus, which in 2023-24 was $ 2.97 billion.
The key Indian exports to Italy include refined oil, broadcasting equipment and iron with hot rolling, while the main imports from Italy include passenger and cargo ships, machine washing and bottles and specialized machines.
Tajani said India is essential for the stability of the Indo-Tichoral region, and said that cooperation between the two countries is essential at political level.
“Our space agencies have already launched a strong and structured dialogue. We want to strengthen it and involve more private sector with a business mission in the universe sector,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said that both parties said both sides in November 2024 after the implementation of a joint strategic action plan opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Maloney.
“It is a very looking, ambitious and pragmatic map with a strong focus on trade, investment, innovation, such an effort to prove to the world that whether it is a telecommunications sector, be it artificial intelligence, quantum calculation, production through industry 4.0.
“IMEC provides us with the opportunity to close to each other,” he added.
The Minister of the External Affairs S. Jaishankar, who dealt with the event, said that ongoing conflicts throughout Europe, in the Middle East and Asia revealed the fragility of supplier chains and disrupted maritime transport.
“Geopolitical competition has sharpened because market shares are used and economic activities are weapons,” he said.
“Excessive concentrations of production and reliability of supplier chains have now become prevalence for us, because industries and governments are trying to keep the pace with the impact of rapid digitization and technological changes that are highlighted by business barriers and export controls,” he added.
(Tagstotranslate) India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (T) IMEC (T) Antonio Tajani (T) India EU FTA
