New Delhi: Diversification of supply chains was the top focus of India-Italy virtual summit on Friday, the fifth such virtual summit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual summit between PM Modi and Italian PM Giuseppe Conte also saw both sides discussing the COVID-19 crisis and G20 summit, given Italy will host the summit in 2021 and India in 2022.


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Sandeep Chakravorty, Secretary (Europe West) at the MEA presser, after the virtual summit said, "Italy is very keen to diversify its supply chains & investment to have a more substantive economic partnership with India. Bilateral economic cooperation was focused on diversification of supply chains."


India, Australia and Japan are working on alternate supply chains, and focus is that more countries join the initiative. In fact, one was the virtual summit was with Denmark's PM and the focus on the diversified supply chain.  


Currently, global supply chains are China dominated and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, an aggressive Beijing necessitated alternate supply chains by like-minded countries like--India, US, Japan, Australia.


Interestingly, the Joint statement after the summit saw both sides stressing on the "importance of the Indo-Pacific region as a fundamental area" for connecting Asia and Europe and stated their Countries’ willingness to support"all connectivity initiatives based on internationally recognized norms and standards, good governance, rule of law, inclusiveness, transparency and a level-playing field."


All in all 15 MoU were signed between the two sides, on trade, technology, shipping, and energy.