The show of bilateral bonhomie between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, first seen during Meloni’s New Delhi visit in March 2023, has not just taken over the internet but also the corridors of power in New Delhi and Rome. The bilateral relationship between the two countries stands elevated to the level of strategic partnership since March, with Rome’s naval experience in Adriatic Sea adding to India’s strategic advantage in the Indo-Pacific.
But all was not well between India and Italy.
While the two countries have shared warmer ties since India achieved freedom from the British Empire in 1947, the bilateral frost came in 2012 when two Italian marines were accused of killing two Indian fishermen near the coast line of southern state of Kerala.
The marines claimed they mistook the fishermen for pirates, and Italy argued the fishermen failed to heed warnings to stay away from the MV Enrica Lexie tanker. The two were arrested and charged with murder.
The case was moved from Kerala to New Delhi. It blew up. The marines stayed on at the Italian embassy complex while the trial went on.
With a pending trial, the two marines were allowed to return to Italy.
In 2015, New Delhi and Rome took the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Netherlands’ Hague.
The PCA ordered Italy to pay ₹100mn in compensation to India “for loss of life”.
Finally, the case was closed in 2021.
India-Italy relations: Effort to repair ties before ‘Melodi’ bonhomie
In September 2016, India’s then foreign minister Sushma Swaraj led an official delegation for the canonisation ceremony of Albaninan-Indian social reformer Mother Teresa at the Vatican City. While the Catholic mass at St Peter’s square presided over by Pope Francis had an obvious religious fervour, the corridors of diplomacy witnessed a crucial bilateral breakthrough between India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni.
Former Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj (centre) along with former minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Vatican City | Agencies
Swaraj and Gentiloni decided that their countries will celebrate the 70th year of India-Italy diplomatic ties. In 2018, the India-Italy ties were celebrated with cultural events in both India and Italy.
In December 2019, during the second prime ministerial tenure of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in new Delhi, the current foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar visited Rome and met the predecessor of Giorgia Meloni, the then Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Jaishankar’s Italy visit in December 2019 took place months after Italy — in March 2019 — became the only G7 nation to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is a transcontinental Chinese connectivity project India has opposed since it passes through a part of India’s Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistani and Chinese occupation respectively.
The foundation was laid for an upcoming India-Italy summit in 2020.
Amid Covid pandemic, a virtual India-Italy summit was held in November 2020. The virtual summit saw the adoption of 2020-2025 Action Plan which further established the ambitious agenda for an enhanced partnership between the two countries.
A total of 15 Memorandums of Understanding covering areas like energy, media, finance, and ship building were signed.
The two sides “underscored the need to further expand defence engagement through greater two-way collaboration and technology cooperation, co-development and co-production, by expediting discussions through the Joint Defence Committee and Military Cooperation Group”.
India-Italy ties: The ‘melodi’ bonhomie
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid his first official visit to Italy in October 2021 to attend the G20 leaders’ summit. On the sidelines of the Summit, he held a bilateral meeting with then PM Mario Draghi in which the two leaders “exchanged views on bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of mutual interest”.
On March 2-3, 2023, the newly elected Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid a state visit to India.
Meloni and Modi held discussions on promoting green economy, energy security and transition, defence co-production and co-innovation, and the blue economy.
The top outcome of Meloni’s state visit was the elevation of the bilateral relationship to the level of Strategic Partnership. A startup bridge between Indian and Italian startup companies was also established.
Besides, it was was during her March visit to India when standing beside Prime Minister Modi at New Delhi’s Hyderabad House, Meloni praised Modi as “the most loved leader” of the world. The netizens then held on to that snippet and ‘Melodi’ (the fusion of the last names of two prime ministers) came into vogue.
The ‘Melodi’ continued to be a social media catchphrase during G20 summit which India hosted in September 2023 and achieved a new height of popularity last week when Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posted a selfie of herself with Modi by using the hashtag: #Melodi.
The selfie, clicked on the sidelines of the COP28 meet in Dubai, was captioned by Meloni: “Good friends at COP28. #Melodi”.
Also watch | Melodi Selfie | Indian PM Modi reacts to ‘Melodi’ selfie
Modi reposted the picture, writing: “Meeting friends is always a delight.”
India-Italy relations: The China factor
India and Italy were on the same page when a consensus was reached on India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, widely hailed as a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Italy’s move to pull itself out of the Belt and Road Initiative this month has brought a specific bilateral convergence in terms of Rome and New Delhi’s shared interests on global connectivity.
