Why it is in news?

• Reviving bilateral ties, India and Italy  agreed to coordinate efforts at the multilateral level to counter global terrorism.
• Describing India as an “Asian superpower”, visiting Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Italy was infavour of a EU-India free trade agreement.
• He inked six agreements with India, covering energy cooperation, diplomatic training and railways. 

Strategic ties

• Mr. Gentiloni said Italy was keen on deepening cooperation in the strategic sectors and focussed on cybersecurity and anti-terrorism as common areas of cooperation.
• India can play a big role in the global coalition against terrorism. Today, all countries face the same terrorist threat from groups that may be different, but have a common link in the use of religious extremism for common goals.
• A multireligious country like India is itself a contribution to fighting terror. The very existence of a democracy with these characteristics is strategic,

Marines issue

• both sides expressed a desire to leave difficult issues such as the Italian marines case behind and initiate steps in the interest of the larger relationship.
• In this direction, Italy supported India’s quest to bring Pakistan-based terror masterminds Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim and others to justice.
• Mr. Modi said, “India and Italy are two large economies, and the respective strengths of our economies provide us ample opportunities to strengthen our commercial cooperation. There is a lot of potential for our bilateral trade of about $8.8 billion to grow much further.”