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Italian PM to visit India

Last Updated 21 October 2017, 18:54 IST

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni will visit New Delhi on October 30, as the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague is set to restart the proceedings over the “Enrica Lexie” case.

Gentiloni will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and call on President Ram Nath Kovind. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on the Italian prime minister during his stay here, sources told DH.

The last time an Italian prime minister visited India was Romano Prodi in February 2007, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Italy to attend the G8 and G5 Summits in July
2009.

The meeting between Gentiloni and Modi is expected to add fresh momentum to the bilateral relations, which were strained over the arrest and trial of the two Italian navy personnel – Massimilano Latorre and Salvatore Girone – for firing at a fishing vessel, St Anthony from an oil tanker MV Enrica Lexie, killing two fishermen from Kerala on February 15, 2002. The issue is likely to be discussed between the two.

In June 2015, Rome moved the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague against New Delhi under the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The impasse in India-Italy ties ended when the international arbitration tribunal in May 2016 asked New Delhi and Rome to approach India’s Supreme Court to allow Girone, who was already on bail and was staying in the embassy of Italy in New Delhi, to go
home.

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(Published 21 October 2017, 18:54 IST)

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