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Europe’s right-wing poster girl and Italian PM, Giorgia Meloni, will be the chief guest next at the Raisina Dialogue, described as India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, next month.
Meloni, who formed Italy’s most far-right government since the days of Mussolini after her victory in elections last year, is also Italy’s first female prime minister. She is expected to inaugurate the conference on March 2 with PM Narendra Modi.
This will be the second year in succession that a prominent European leader will participate in the Dialogue as the chief guest in the middle of the Ukraine war. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the chief guest last year. It was at the Raisina that foreign minister S Jaishankar had lashed out at Europe for ignoring the threat to rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific and for throwing the Afghanistan civil society “under the bus’’.
Both India and Europe have not allowed differences over the Russia-Ukraine conflict to come in the way of bilateral cooperation. Significantly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been leading Europe’s efforts to end the conflict along with French President Emmanuel Macron, is visiting India next week for a summit meeting with Modi. His visit will come on the first anniversary of the Ukraine war.
For India, it’s of interest that Italy has been closely following EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy and also looking to contribute both strategically and economically to it. Meloni has also promised to take a much tougher line on China. While she has condemned China’s actions on the Taiwan issue, she has also described as a big mistake Italy’s 2019 MoU with China for cooperation under Beijing’s BRI initiative, which has never been endorsed by India. However, whether Italy withdraws from BRI could depend on the outcome of Meloni’s proposed visit to China in May for a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Modi had congratulated Meloni after the elections in Italy for leading her party Fratelli d’Italia to victory and said he was looking forward to further deepening ties.
The first meeting between the 2 leaders – on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last year – saw them exchanging views on the need to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and also food and energy crises resulting from the Ukraine conflict. Defence, trade, energy, counter-terrorism and people to people ties are other areas the 2 leaders are expected to focus on when they meet next month.
Meloni, who formed Italy’s most far-right government since the days of Mussolini after her victory in elections last year, is also Italy’s first female prime minister. She is expected to inaugurate the conference on March 2 with PM Narendra Modi.
This will be the second year in succession that a prominent European leader will participate in the Dialogue as the chief guest in the middle of the Ukraine war. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was the chief guest last year. It was at the Raisina that foreign minister S Jaishankar had lashed out at Europe for ignoring the threat to rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific and for throwing the Afghanistan civil society “under the bus’’.
Both India and Europe have not allowed differences over the Russia-Ukraine conflict to come in the way of bilateral cooperation. Significantly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been leading Europe’s efforts to end the conflict along with French President Emmanuel Macron, is visiting India next week for a summit meeting with Modi. His visit will come on the first anniversary of the Ukraine war.
For India, it’s of interest that Italy has been closely following EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy and also looking to contribute both strategically and economically to it. Meloni has also promised to take a much tougher line on China. While she has condemned China’s actions on the Taiwan issue, she has also described as a big mistake Italy’s 2019 MoU with China for cooperation under Beijing’s BRI initiative, which has never been endorsed by India. However, whether Italy withdraws from BRI could depend on the outcome of Meloni’s proposed visit to China in May for a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Modi had congratulated Meloni after the elections in Italy for leading her party Fratelli d’Italia to victory and said he was looking forward to further deepening ties.
The first meeting between the 2 leaders – on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last year – saw them exchanging views on the need to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and also food and energy crises resulting from the Ukraine conflict. Defence, trade, energy, counter-terrorism and people to people ties are other areas the 2 leaders are expected to focus on when they meet next month.
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