India, Italy announce 5-year joint plan on defence, space

India and Italy on Tuesday announced an ambitious five-year ‘joint strategic action plan 2025-2029’ that would include cooperation in space sector, critical technology, research, co-production of military equipment and widening the ambit of economic cooperation.

The Ministry of External Affairs said the five-year plan was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday.

The two decided to give further impetus through focused, time-bound initiatives and joint plan of strategic action, the MEA said. At the political level, India and Italy will “intensify meetings and interactions between the heads of other ministries to deepen cooperation in all sectors of common interest”, the MEA said.

On economic cooperation, the two sides look to leverage the work of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation and of the Italy-India Joint Working Group on Food Processing.

The Indo-Italian Innovation and Incubation Exchange Programme will be initiated. The executive programme for scientific and technological cooperation for 2025-27 is to be operationalised later this year.

In the space sector, the two countries plan to expand cooperation between the Italian Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to include projects of common interest in earth observation, helio-physics and space exploration with emphasis on lunar science. By mid-2025, an Italian delegation of representatives of the space industry will visit India.

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese conducted the second India-Australia annual summit on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro
• “They reiterated their resolve to advance partnership in areas like defence, security, trade, education, sports, space and people-to-people ties,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal posted on X