India looks to bury feud with Italy to achieve bigger ambition

New Delhi

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to a European Union summit this week, seeking to patch up a four-year diplomatic feud with Italy that has grown toxic enough to threaten New Delhi's ambitions to become a bigger global player.

India hopes the Brussels summit will bring a thaw in ties with Italy, and keep it from blocking the Asian nation's membership of a key global group on missile technology, after Rome single-handedly scuppered India's bid to join last year. "We have always wanted a vibrant, robust partnership with Italy," said Indian foreign ministry official Nandini Singla."We see Italy as a key EU partner." The row between the two nations stems from India's arrest of two Italian marines to stand trial for the killing of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012, a crime Italy said was beyond the jurisdiction of Indian courts.