Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh has said that India offers exciting opportunities for co-development and co-production in the defence manufacturing sector. On the second day of his visit to Italy, Mr. Singh met the CEOs and other top industry leaders of Italian defence companies in Rome on Tuesday.

The Raksha Mantri urged the Italian industry leaders to strengthen the supply chain linkages with the Indian defence manufacturers and develop closer ties with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers. The meeting was attended by CEOs, Presidents and Vice Presidents and senior officials of 24 Italian defence companies.

After the meeting, Mr. Singh paid homage at a Memorial recently built for Naik Yaswant Ghadge and other Indian soldiers who fought in the Italian campaign in World War II.

On the first day of his visit on Monday, Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh holds talks with Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in Rome. During the meeting, both the leaders discussed opportunities in defence industrial cooperation and an agreement was signed to promote defence cooperation between the two countries.

The Defence Ministry said, agreement will promote bilateral cooperation in varied defence domains. It include security and defence policy, Research and Development, education in military field, maritime domain awareness, sharing of defence information and industrial cooperation, including co-development, co-production and setting up of joint ventures.