Context: 

Recently, Prime minister of India and his Italian counterpart unveiled the Italy-India joint strategic action for 2025-2029 at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

More on the news

• Political Dialogue: The two nations agreed to enhance political ties through regular high-level meetings, yearly bilateral consultations, and frequent ministerial interactions to foster cooperation in key sectors.
• Economic Cooperation:  The countries aim to boost economic ties by enhancing trade, investments such as agricultural products and machinery, chemical-pharmaceuticals, wood and furniture, etc., and industrial partnerships in high-potential sectors, leveraging joint commissions, business forums, and mutual collaborations. 
• Defense Cooperation: The nations aim to deepen defense ties through regular consultations, enhanced interoperability, maritime cooperation, technology collaboration, and a proposed Defense Industrial Roadmap and MoU between key industry bodies. 
• Security Cooperation: Improve security cooperation with regular exchanges and capacity-building initiatives in specialized areas, such as cybersecurity and cybercrime.
• Cooperation in Migration, people-to-people contact, Cinema, Tourism and Culture. 
• The countries seek to enhance connectivity through sustainable transport, maritime and land infrastructure collaboration, and finalizing a maritime cooperation agreement within the India Middle-East Economic Corridor (IMEC) framework.

About G20

• G20 is a group of 20, comprising of 19 countries - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and the United States - and two regional bodies: the European Union and the African Union.
• It is an informal grouping, formed in 1999 after multiple economic crises across the world. 
• It does not have a permanent secretariat or staff like the United Nations. 
• Instead, the G20 presidency rotates annually among its member, with the presiding country responsible for setting the agenda, organizing its activities, and hosting the summits.

Agendas for this year: 

• Eradication of Hunger- Brazil plans to establish a Global Alliance Against Hunger, utilizing social programs and funding mechanisms to tackle global food shortages and supplies.
• Trade ties - The UK Prime Minister is prioritizing stronger trade ties to boost the economy, addressing challenges from potential US tariffs under President-elect Trump and post-Brexit adjustments.

Importance of G20: 

• The member countries together account for 85% of global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
• One of the key successes was managing the 2008 financial crisis through $4 trillion in stimulus, rejecting trade barriers, and implementing financial system reforms.
• The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, launched at the 2023 summit, that recently seen as a significant challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.