KD NEWS SERVICE

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI, May 21: India has stepped up efforts to strengthen the security of its offshore energy assets and maritime infrastructure as the 138th Offshore Security Coordination Committee (OSCC) meeting concluded in Ahmedabad on Thursday under the chairmanship of Director General of the Indian Coast Guard, Paramesh Sivamani.
The high-level meeting assumed major significance amid growing concerns over evolving maritime threats, including drone-enabled attacks, unmanned surveillance systems, cyber vulnerabilities, and the increasing strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region. Senior officials from India’s defence, intelligence, maritime, and energy sectors gathered to review the country’s offshore security preparedness and formulate coordinated responses to emerging challenges.

The OSCC meeting focused on enhancing the protection framework for India’s offshore installations, oil rigs, and critical energy infrastructure located across strategic maritime zones. Officials stressed that the security environment in the Indian Ocean Region has become increasingly complex due to rapid technological advancements in modern warfare and the expanding presence of non-traditional threats.

The deliberations were held in the context of the evolving global and regional security environment, modern warfare dynamics including unmanned and drone-enabled threats, and the expanding offshore exploration activities in the Andaman and Nicobar region. The island territories are strategically important for India because of their proximity to key international shipping routes and growing energy exploration operations.

The meeting witnessed participation from representatives of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), Indian Navy, Indian Air Force (IAF), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Directorate General of Shipping, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and state police forces. The presence of multiple agencies reflected the government’s integrated approach towards securing offshore and coastal infrastructure.

Officials reviewed current threat perceptions surrounding offshore assets and examined mechanisms to improve operational coordination among various maritime and security agencies. Discussions reportedly included strengthening maritime domain awareness through advanced surveillance technologies, coastal radar systems, aerial reconnaissance, intelligence-sharing frameworks, and integrated response networks.

The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment from all participating agencies to bolster offshore defence mechanisms and ensure the safety of India’s maritime economic interests. Commandant Amit Uniyal, Public Relations Officer of the Indian Coast Guard, later issued the official press brief on the proceedings of the meeting.

Particular attention during the discussions was directed toward the growing risk posed by drone-enabled threats. Security experts noted that unmanned aerial and maritime systems are increasingly being used globally for reconnaissance, sabotage, and asymmetric warfare operations targeting critical infrastructure. Officials emphasized the need for robust counter-drone capabilities and real-time monitoring systems to secure offshore platforms and maritime installations.

The Committee also focused on enhancing maritime domain awareness, inter-agency coordination, surveillance capabilities, and joint response mechanisms to effectively tackle emerging offshore security challenges.

Improved interoperability between defence forces, intelligence agencies, coastal authorities, and civilian stakeholders was identified as a key priority to ensure swift and coordinated action during emergencies at sea.
India’s offshore energy infrastructure remains a vital component of the nation’s economic and energy security framework. Offshore oil and gas fields contribute significantly to domestic production, making their protection essential for ensuring uninterrupted energy supplies and safeguarding national interests.

The OSCC reaffirmed its commitment to continuous modernization, enhanced preparedness, and stronger coordination mechanisms to counter evolving maritime threats. Officials said the meeting marked another important step in reinforcing India’s offshore security architecture at a time when maritime strategic challenges continue to grow across the region.

Vinod Bhat

New Delhi: At the invitation of the President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, paid an official visit to Italy on 19-20 May 2026. The visit, following Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Italy in June 2024 for the G7 Summit and Prime Minister Meloni’s visit to India for the G20 Summit in 2023, provided renewed momentum to the bilateral ties. The two leaders decided to elevate India-Italy relations to the level of a Special Strategic Partnership.

Political Dialogue

The two Prime Ministers welcomed the strong momentum of high-level exchanges and agreed to hold annual meetings of leaders including on the sidelines of multilateral events, as well as regular Ministerial and institutional-level meetings.

They appreciated the concrete progress achieved across the diverse pillars of the Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-2029 adopted by the two leaders in their meeting during the G20 Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024. They agreed to establish Foreign Ministers-led mechanism to review the India-Italy Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025-29 and provide strategic guidance to India-Italy Special Strategic Partnership.

Economic Cooperation and Investments

Both leaders expressed satisfaction at the growing dynamism of bilateral economic and industrial cooperation, with three high level business fora held since the last year. Building on the opportunities arising from India’s rapid and consistent economic growth and the successful conclusion of the negotiations for the EU–India Free Trade Agreement, they reaffirmed the shared objective of expanding bilateral trade in both direction with aim to reach to € 20 billion by 2029.

They welcomed the increase of bilateral investments in key sectors and encouraged the respective industries to forge industrial and technology partnerships in order to build resilient supply chains. They welcomed the prospect of greater investments, particularly in textiles, clean technologies, semiconductors, automotive, energy, tourism, pharmaceuticals and medical technologies, digital technologies, critical raw materials, steel, ports and infrastructure. They encouraged industries to utilize the policy incentives and schemes in place in both countries which seek to enhance business linkages and production facilities.

Both Prime Ministers agreed to encourage dialogue and cooperation among stock exchanges, investment funds, venture capital, banks, insurance companies and financial institutions.

They agreed to facilitate industrial partnerships, including between SMEs, to foster deeper integration of supply chains. They encouraged new sectoral missions in the coming months in priority areas of mutual interest.

The two Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in Critical Minerals. They agreed to further strengthen and expand bilateral cooperation in field of critical minerals by establishing a structured framework for collaboration, with particular emphasis on sustainability and resilient supply chains. They underscored the importance of promoting joint efforts in recovery of critical minerals from unconventional sources, including electronic waste and mine tailings, as an integral component of circular economy initiatives. They also expressed satisfaction on signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the field of agriculture and agricultural research between respective ministries and institutions.

Connectivity

The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), recognising its transformational potential in reshaping and promoting global trade, connectivity and prosperity. Appreciating the preliminary discussions around the project, they encouraged the first IMEC Ministerial meeting to take concrete steps for advancing this initiative in 2026.

They welcomed the signing of an MoU on maritime transport and ports and directed their respective ministries/departments to establish a joint working group to implement the MoU at the earliest.

Science, Technology, Innovation, Start-ups and Artificial Intelligence

The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed that innovation, science and technology are core drivers of the India-Italy partnership.

They announced the creation of INNOVIT India, an innovation hub located in India aimed at strengthening cooperation between the respective innovation ecosystems, support startup acceleration programs, market access and business matching, joint research, university collaboration, and talent mobility in sectors including fintech, healthcare, semiconductors, logistics and supply chains, agritech, energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. Both leaders welcomed the inaugural Science and Innovation Dialogue between Indian and Italian universities and research centres held in Delhi in April 2025 and look forward to holding its next edition in Italy later this year.

Both leaders underlined the importance of an open, free, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful ICT environment, which is an enabler for innovation and economic growth. PM Modi thanked PM Meloni for Italy’s constructive participation in the AI Impact Summit that took place on 19th February 2026 in New Delhi. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a human-centric, secure, trustworthy and robust Artificial Intelligence. They agreed to collaborate in this domain including in third countries.

The two Prime Ministers placed particular emphasis on opportunities for cooperation in the field of supercomputing.

Building on the 2025–2027 Executive Program for Scientific Cooperation, they supported the implementation of joint projects and the facilitation of mobility of researchers in area of quantum technologies, renewable energy, green hydrogen and sustainable blue economy. They also welcomed the ongoing implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the field of scientific research and the launching of a joint call for proposals to fund research projects.

The two Prime Ministers acknowledged the longstanding scientific collaboration between the Indian Academia and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste and welcomed the signing of a Letter of Intent between the Indian Department of Science and Technology and the Elettra Sincrotrone center in Trieste, Italy in support of activities related to the access of synchrotron radiation facility at Elettra for Indian researchers.

Space

While appreciating the ongoing collaboration between Italian Space Agency and the Indian Space Research Organisation, the two leaders agreed to strengthen the partnership on Earth observation, heliophysics and space exploration, with focused thematic engagement and to explore cooperation on access to space and protection of space infrastructures. They expressed satisfaction with the recent reciprocal visits of their respective space industry delegations and looked forward to further promote commercial collaboration through exchanges of experts and joint initiatives also in third countries.

Defence

Both Prime Ministers expressed satisfaction with the deepening of defence cooperation including through Ministerial exchanges, service-to-service ties, port visits, and welcomed the adoption of a Joint Declaration of Intent and a Defence Industrial Roadmap which will promote partnerships for technological cooperation, co-production and co-development projects, including helicopters, naval platforms, marine armament and electronic warfare. They also recognized the importance of protecting critical infrastructures and their related supply chains through the strengthening of industrial resilience.

The two sides agreed to examine the feasibility of establishing an annual high level military structured dialogue, complementing the work of the Joint Defence Committee and the Military Cooperation Group, and to promote joint exercises and inter-force courses.

Both leaders agreed to launch a Dialogue on Maritime Security, with the aim of increasing maritime security cooperation, coordination, and the exchange of information and best practices in the maritime domain.

Security

The two leaders strongly condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross border terrorism. The two leaders strongly condemned the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack and reiterated their commitment to cooperate in the fight against terrorists and terrorist groups and their affiliates including those listed in the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions regime. They called upon all countries to continue to work towards eliminating terrorist safe havens and infrastructure, disrupting terrorist networks and combating the financing of terrorism, consistent with the Financial Action Task Force’s guidelines. Both leaders reiterated their commitment to work together at the UN, FATF and other multilateral platforms.

Both leaders welcomed the first meeting of the Permanent Task Force between India and Italy on countering the financing of terrorism and the upcoming meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism.

Both leaders welcomed the conclusion of an MoU between the Italian Guardia di Finanza and the Directorate of Enforcement of India and looked forward to early conclusion of the Agreement on Exchange and Mutual Protection of Classified Information and the Agreement on strengthening of Police Cooperation. They also welcomed the ongoing discussions on other agreements including Extradition Treaty and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

Migration and Mobility

The two leaders agreed to enhance mobility of students, researchers and skilled workers, particularly in STEM sectors, and to expand cooperation on skills development, in line with the needs of the labour market, including through a specific Joint Declaration of Intent on the facilitation of mobility of nurses from India to Italy. In this context, they welcomed the ongoing discussions between relevant agencies on Social Security Agreement (SSA).

They welcomed the launch of “ICI – Italy Calls India: a University-Enterprise talent bridge” aimed at enhancing the talent of Indian students enrolled in Italian universities by offering concrete pathways for guidance, matching, and qualified integration into Italian enterprises.

They also discussed the possibility of strengthening the cooperation to fight against irregular migration, labour exploitation and human trafficking to ensure safe and legal migration.

Culture and Educational Exchanges

The two leaders highlighted culture as a key pillar of bilateral dialogue and welcomed the signing of an MoU regarding Italy’s participation in the development of the National Maritime Heritage Complex in Lothal. They acknowledged the Indian National Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale in 2026. They expressed their intention to celebrate 2027 as the “Year of Culture and Tourism between Italy and India”, which will feature a broad calendar of initiatives, and pave the way to a major exhibition on ancient cultural relations between Italy and India to be co-organized by the two Ministries of Culture.

The two leaders encouraged the organization of an Italy–India Cultural Forum, bringing together institutions, experts, and representatives of the creative industries. The two leaders appreciated the launching of the twinning program between Indian and Italian sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, aimed at strengthening cooperation in the protection, enhancement and management of cultural heritage.

The two leaders agreed to further develop the film and audio-visual cooperation between the two Nations, building on the strength and innovative capacities of their industries and on the legal framework provided by the bilateral co-production agreement.

The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed their intention to strengthening cooperation in higher education and welcomed the adoption of the Indo-Italian Roadmap on Higher Education and Research. Prime Minister Modi invited Italian universities and institutions of excellence to open campuses in India under India’s New Education Policy.

India-EU Relations

The Leaders welcomed the new Joint India–EU Comprehensive Strategic Agenda agreed at the India–EU Summit on 27 January 2026 and the conclusion of negotiations of the India–EU Free Trade Agreement which would elevate ties to a new level by enhancing market access, reducing trade barriers, and strengthening economic security and resilience through diversified value chains and new market opportunities.

They also reaffirmed their support for strengthening the India–EU Trade and Technology Council as a key platform for cooperation in trade, critical technologies, and economic security. The leaders welcomed the India–EU Security and Defence Partnership and appreciated progress in mobility cooperation, including the MoU on a Comprehensive Framework for Mobility.

Multilateral Cooperation

Both Leaders stressed the urgent need to reform the United Nations to make it more representative and suited to present-day realities.

Both Leaders emphasized the importance of working together in the United Nations and other global platforms including G20 to protect multilateralism and uphold a rules-based international order.

Recognizing the strategic priority both countries attach to Africa, the two Prime Ministers agreed to work together in trilateral initiatives with African partners in areas such as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), agriculture, education, healthcare, artificial intelligence, connectivity and infrastructure and renewable energy in line with India’s development partnership in Africa and Italy’s Mattei Plan.

The Leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to a free, open, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, in line with international law, including UNCLOS. They look forward to their continued partnership in Science and Technology and Academic cooperation pillar of Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiatives.

Both leaders expressed deep concern over the situation in the West Asia/the Middle East and its effects in the region as well as the rest of the world. The leaders welcomed the ceasefire announced on 8 April 2026 and underlined the importance of de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy for a lasting peace in the West Asia/the Middle East. They also called for freedom of navigation and the resumption of global flows through Strait of Hormuz.

Both leaders expressed concern over the ongoing war in Ukraine, which continues to cause immense human suffering and negative global consequences. They agreed to continue to support efforts towards the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine through dialogue and diplomacy, in accordance with the international law and the principles of the UN Charter.

Conclusion

Noting the impressive growth and deepening of India-Italy Special Strategic Partnership, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further expand cooperation across all sectors and continue close high-level consultations on key global and regional developments.

Prime Minister Modi thanked Prime Minister Meloni for the warm hospitality extended by the Government and the people of the Italian Republic and invited Prime Minister Meloni to visit India at a mutually convenient time.