11th India – Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) Meeting

11th edition of India – Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) meeting was held from 31 May 2022 to 01 June 22 at Rome, Italy. Book Your SSB Interview Class Now...

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June 2, 2022
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11^th edition of India – Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) meeting was held from 31 May 2022 to 01 June 22 at Rome, Italy.

11th india italy military cooperation group mcg meeting

India – Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) is a forum established to boost defence cooperation between the both countries through regular talks at the strategic and operational levels between Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff and the Joint Staff HQ of Italian Armed Forces.

The meeting was Co-Chaired from the Indian side by Deputy Assistant Chief of Integrated Staff IDC(A), HQ IDS Brigadier Vivek Narang and Italian Defence General Staff Brigadier General Alessandro Grassano, from the Italian side.

The military cooperation group meeting was held in a friendly, warm and cordial atmosphere. Discussions focused on new initiatives under the ambit of existing bilateral defence cooperation mechanism and further strengthening ongoing defence engagements.

All About India And Italy Relations:

India and Italy are ancient civilizations but young states (Italy having been reunified only in 1861). The classical languages, Sanskrit and Latin both belong to the Indo-European language family. Peoples of these two ancient civilizations have known, interacted and traded with each other for over 2000 years. Italian port cities were important trading posts on the spice route. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo, during his travels to the east, also traveled to India in the 13th century and wrote about his experiences. Indian troops, serving with the British Indian Army, were active in Italy during the World War II. These included the Rajputana Rifles and Gurkha Rifles. The 10th Indian Division took part in the East African Allied campaign against the Italians in Somaliland and Abyssinia.

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India is Italy’s fifth-largest trading partner in the EU
Balance of trade has been in India’s favor since 1988.
The volume of bilateral trade during 2016 has reached Euro 7516.90 million. The exports from India reached Euro 4238.89 million, with an increase of 5.94% in comparison to 2015.
During 2016, India’s imports from Italy stood at Euro 3278.01 million, registering a decrease of -2.17% compared to 2015. Thus, the balance of trade remains in India’s favour (+960.88 million).
The thrust areas of India’s exports to Italy are iron, cast iron, steel and ferro-alloys; organic basic chemicals, refined petroleum products; plants for the production of beverages; footwear; tanned leather, vehicles; fish, crustaceans, and mollusks (processed and preserved); jewelry and related items; plastics in primary forms; dyes and pigments; parts and accessories for vehicles.
Principal items of India’s imports from Italy: machinery for textile, garment, and leather industries (parts and accessories included); general-purpose machinery; special-purpose machinery; organic basic products; parts and accessories for vehicles; taps and valves; paper and cardboard; Machine tools for metal shaping; Ornamental and building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk and slate; Tubes, pipes, hollow profiles, and related accessories in steel (excluding cast steel); pumps and compressors; chemical products nca.
Future Prospects for investment and trade are encouraging, as India is increasingly being seen as an emerging economic power in the world and an important economic partner in Asia, both in terms of trade and investment, and as an alternative to their original interest in Eastern Europe.
Italy is India’s fifth largest trading partner in the EU. Italy is the 13th largest foreign investor in India (0.70% of the cumulative total FDIs to India in the period April 2000 – June 2017). The European countries ahead of Italy in this respect are UK (that ranks 4th), Netherlands (5th), Germany (7th), Cyprus (8th), France (9th) and Spain (12th).
The Indo-Italian bilateral trend has been constantly increasing at high rates till 2011 and only in 2012 and 2013 the trend has registered a negative growth, respectively by -16.67% and -2.62%, due to the global economic recession. The bilateral trade crossed for the first time 7 billion Euro in 2010 and 8 billion Euro in 2011. In 2015 the bilateral trade registered a positive growth by +2.12% over the previous year and in 2016 the growth was +2.25%.
Based on the identified defence potential of Italy, the Defence Wing was established in the Embassy in 1987. Since Italy has a diversified defence sector which caters notably to the needs of Army, Navy and Air Force, the assignment of the Defence Attachè was conceived in the tri-service model.
The defence cooperation and friendship, not with standing, India has a huge “footprint” on Italian soil because of the supreme sacrifice made by Indian Soldiers during the Second world war and for the sake of freedom in Italy. By 1945, a total of 5782 Indian soldiers died in Italy with as many as six of them receiving the VICTORIA CROSS
The Indian Soldiers commemorated in Italy during the Second World War are spread over 40 cemeteries in Italy, the major ones being at Cassino, Arezzo, Florence, Forlì, Sangro River and Rimini.
In November 2020, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, co-chaired a virtual Summit and held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional and global issues.
The two had talked about strengthening defence cooperation between the two countries and recognised the importance of regular defence exchanges between the two countries.
They 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.
On 7th May 2022 Visiting Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio today held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during which they discussed closer industrial collaboration, including in the field of defence, and committed to closely work in countering common challenges related to terrorism, violent extremism and cybercrime, according to an official statement.
They also discussed the implementation of the India-Italy strategic partnership on energy transition announced in 2021 during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Italy and agreed to explore partnership in areas such as gas transportation, green hydrogen, biofuel and energy storage.

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