“Hi friends, from #Melodi,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni captioned a short selfie video showing her camaraderie with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders met on Friday at the end of Prime Minister Modi’s day-long visit to Apulia, southern Italy. During the visit, Modi expressed gratitude to the Italian Prime Minister for the invitation to attend the G7 Summit. This visit marked his first foreign trip after assuming office for a historic third term as the prime minister. The five-second video was posted by Meloni on her social media account on Saturday. “Hello from the Melodi team,” the 47-year-old Italian leader, the country’s first female prime minister, said in the video, in which Modi, 73, was seen laughing behind her. Prime Minister Modi shared the video with a message, “Long live India-Italy friendship!” Earlier on Saturday, a selfie of the two leaders at the G7 Summit went viral. In December of last year, the two leaders had taken a selfie at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai. Sharing the picture, Meloni captioned it, “Good friends at COP28, #Melodi.” During their bilateral talks on Friday, the two leaders discussed the progress of the bilateral strategic partnership and agreed to strengthen cooperation in global forums and multilateral initiatives, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. “Had a very good meeting with PM @GiorgiaMeloni,” Prime Minister Modi wrote. “We discussed ways to further strengthen India-Italy relations in areas such as commerce, energy, defense, telecom, and more. Our nations will collaborate in futuristic areas like biofuels, food processing, and critical minerals,” he added after the meeting.
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