New Delhi, Jun 1 (IANS): The two-day India-Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) meeting, held in Rome from Tuesday, has decided to strengthen defence ties between the two countries, an official statement said on Wednesday.

As per a Defence Ministry statement, the MCG is a forum established to boost defence cooperation between the both countries through regular talks at the strategic and operational levels between the headquarters of India's Integrated Defence Staff and the Joint Staff HQ of Italian Armed Forces.

The meeting, co-chaired by Deputy Assistant Chief of Integrated Staff, Brigadier Vivek Narang and Italian Defence General Staff's Brigadier General Alessandro Grassano, was held in a friendly, warm and cordial atmosphere and discussions focused on new initiatives under the ambit of existing bilateral defence cooperation mechanism and further strengthening ongoing defence engagements, the statement said.

In November 2020, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, co-chaired a virtual Summit and held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional and global issues.

The two had talked about strengthening defence cooperation between the two countries and recognised the importance of regular defence exchanges between the two countries.

They underscored the need to further expand defence engagement through greater two-way collaboration and technology cooperation, co-development and co-production, by expediting discussions through the Joint Defence Committee and Military Cooperation Group.