Two Peninsulas, One Maritime Arc: India, Italy And The Mediterranean Link

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on port modernisation and logistics, echoed by his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni’s reference to the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific as interconnected spaces, underlines a shift in how India views distant waters.

The Mediterranean is emerging in New Delhi’s thinking as the Indo-Pacific’s western gateway – where maritime security, supply chains and geopolitical partnerships converge, with Italy as a key interlocutor.

“As maritime powers, close cooperation in the field of connectivity is natural for India and Italy,” Modi said during a joint media briefing with Meloni in Rome on Wednesday during the course of which the two sides agreed to elevate their ties to that of a Special Strategic Partnership. “We will work together on shipping, port modernisation, logistics, and the blue economy.”

On her part, Meloni said that India and Italy are two peninsulas or two platforms, which are projected in crucial areas of the world – the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific region.

“We think that strengthening the interconnection between these two important areas is of extreme importance,” she said. “That’s the reason why we wanted to further develop IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor)… which was established during the G20 Summit (in New Delhi in 2023).”

“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,” a joint statement issued following the bilateral summit reads. “Appreciating the preliminary discussions around the project, they encouraged the first IMEC Ministerial meeting to take concrete steps for advancing this initiative in 2026.”

The two leaders’ statements point to a single, continuous maritime arc that carries trade, energy, data and security interests from the Indian Ocean to Europe. For New Delhi, partnering with Italy in the Mediterranean is not peripheral to the Indo-Pacific idea – it is an extension of it.

The Indo-Pacific sea lanes that matter to India do not end at the Red Sea. They pass through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean and onward to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar. A large share of India–Europe trade and energy cargo traverses this corridor.

Cooperation with Italy helps India in monitoring and securing traffic in the post-Suez leg of its critical sea lines of communication. It builds maritime domain awareness across crowded and sensitive waters. It develops habits of coordination with a resident European naval power.

Ports in northern Italy - especially the Port of Trieste - offer fast multimodal access to Central and Eastern Europe. For Indian exporters and logistics planners, this means shorter, more resilient routes into EU markets than North Sea alternatives, rail-road corridors that decongest traditional gateways, and scope for port modernisation, smart logistics and shipping cooperation, as flagged by both leaders.

“The two leaders expressed satisfaction on deepening defence cooperation through ministerial and official interactions, exchange of port visits and regular engagement of defence forces,” a separate statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs following the bilateral summit reads. “They welcomed the signing of Joint Declaration of Intent, an industrial roadmap for collaboration in co-design, co-development and co-production of defence products.”

Regular port calls, exercises and staff talks with the Italian Navy normalise an Indian naval presence in the Mediterranean. This enhances interoperability with a NATO navy experienced in coalition missions, signals India’s role as a security partner beyond the Indian Ocean, and builds capacity for joint responses to non-traditional threats like piracy spillover, trafficking, and maritime terrorism.

President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, shaking hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi before a meeting at Quirinale Palace in Rome (AFP)

A large volume of hydrocarbons and LNG bound for Europe transits the Mediterranean, alongside dense undersea cable networks carrying global data. Joint dialogues with Italy on protection of subsea cables and pipelines, port energy infrastructure security, and maritime contingency planning feed directly into India’s energy security calculus and its interest in safeguarding digital arteries that underpin trade and finance.

Modi’s emphasis on shipping, port modernisation, logistics and the blue economy aligns with Italy’s strengths in shipbuilding, marine engineering, port management and coastal economy models. Practical cooperation can include green port technologies and digitised logistics chains, marine research, fisheries management and coastal sustainability, and industrial partnerships with maritime applications under India’s ‘Aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) drive.

Italy’s voice in EU and NATO maritime deliberations makes it a valuable bridge for India into European security thinking. Through Rome, New Delhi can deepen India–EU maritime cooperation, participate more substantively in European naval engagements, and align assessments on threats emanating from West Asia and North Africa that affect shipping.

Instability along the North African littoral and the Levant has direct consequences for Mediterranean shipping. Coordinated diplomatic and maritime engagement with Italy will enable India to contribute to stability in this extended neighbourhood without overextension.

According to Robinder Sachdev, strategic affairs expert and president of the New Delhi-based Imagindia think tank, the architecture of this connectivity between the Indo-Pacific and the Mediterranean Sea is firstly based upon the IMEC.

“Now the question is that where will the corridor terminate?” Sachdevv said while speaking to ETV Bharat. “Will it terminate in Italy, in Greece or in France? The point is in whichever country this corridor terminates, so to say, will have some economic, you know, boost due to trade and warehousing and transportation and further up into the heartland of Europe and reverse when, let’s say, goods are being exported from Europe to India.”

He said that such a gateway will become important in terms of economic activity and Italy would very much like to have that. “The IMEC has advantages of less transportation time,” Sachdev said. “It will cut down transportation time as compared to going via the Suez Canal. So, it will be beneficial for the exporters and importers of both India and Europe.” He also highlighted the fact that Italy has appointed a special envoy for IMEC.

The Mediterranean is the western extension of India’s Indo-Pacific sea lanes. By partnering with Italy on connectivity, ports, logistics, naval cooperation and the blue economy, India secures the arteries that link its economy to Europe, expands its naval reach, and plugs into European maritime security architectures. In strategic terms, Rome helps New Delhi ensure that the Indo-Pacific vision remains unbroken from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic.

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