Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his wife Flavia Franzoni meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi on Thursday.
— Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal |
New Delhi, February 15
The visiting Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, today did everything to woo New Delhi by putting India-Italy wide-ranging cooperation on a fast track, but failed to give the Indians what they want most: Rome’s support for the Indian bid for UN Security Council permanent membership.
From the Indian perspective, Italy is in the “enemy camp” as far as the Indian quest for the UNSC is concerned. Italy is one of the prominent members of Pakistan-led Coffee Club, which is dead against the Indian campaign. Prodi’s visit did nothing to change this. Significantly, a joint statement released after Prodi’s talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also silent on the UNSC issue.
The two sides signed three agreements in the presence of the two Prime Ministers, including an MoU for setting up a joint working group on combating international terrorism and transnational crime. The MoU was signed by Italy’s Ambassador to India Antonio Armellini and Indian Ambassador to Italy Rajiv Dogra.
