G20 in Rio, Meloni meets Indian Prime Minister Modi: strategic commitment India-Italy | The Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and the World Bank President Banga.

The President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Giorgia Meloni, and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, had a meeting during the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro. This is the fifth meeting between the two Prime Ministers in two years. The last one was in June 2024, in Puglia, Italy, on the occasion of the G7 Summit chaired by Prime Minister Meloni. Prime Minister Modi congratulated Prime Minister Meloni for leading the G7 in these difficult times.

Following the discussions in Puglia, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advance the India-Italy strategic partnership and announced a joint strategic action plan 2025-29 which outlines their vision for the next five years.

The action plan will foster collaborations, programs and joint initiatives in key areas such as: trade and investment, science and technology, new and emerging technologies, clean energy, space, defense, connectivity and people-to-people relations.

The two sides will maintain regular dialogue at ministerial and senior official levels in a variety of areas. Co-production, collaboration between respective industries and institutions, innovation and mobility will further enhance and deepen the bilateral partnership and benefit the economies and citizens of both nations.

The two Heads of Government look forward to continuing the dialogue and working together within the framework of multilateral and global institutions to uphold the shared values ​​of democracy, the rule of law and sustainable development. They agreed to continue to work together also to implement multilateral strategic initiatives including the Global Biofuels Alliance and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, of which they are founding members.

At the G20 in Rio, the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, also had a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

The meeting allowed to verify the implementation status of the Action Plan for enhanced cooperation between Italy and Canada, adopted during the meeting of the two Leaders at the G7 Summit in Borgo Egnazia. In this regard, President Meloni and Prime Minister Trudeau expressed satisfaction for the results already achieved in recent months such as the holding of the first meeting of the Joint Advisory Group on artificial intelligence, the adoption of a joint declaration on cooperation in the sector of critical materials and the strengthening of collaboration between the respective space agencies.

The meeting also provided an opportunity for discussion between the outgoing and incoming G7 Presidencies. In this context, President Meloni, in expressing her best wishes for the job, expressed the hope of seeing continuity of themes and priorities ensured, with particular reference to the attention given to the African continent by the Italian Presidency.

At the G20 in Rio de Janeiro, Meloni, together with the Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, also had a bilateral meeting with the President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga.

The meeting was an opportunity to take stock of the strengthened collaboration between Italy and the World Bank, inaugurated by the adoption of the declaration of intent on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Borgo Egnazia, with the aim of jointly implementing development initiatives in African nations in the key sectors of the Mattei Plan for Africa, such as energy, infrastructure, water and training.

During the discussion, the Prime Minister announced Italy's intention to increase its contribution to the three-year refinancing of the International Development Association (IDA) also in order to allow the body, which allocates 75% of its resources to Africa, to strengthen its support for projects implemented under the Mattei Plan.