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.
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.
One of the men has been allowed to return home for medical treatment, while the other is confined to the Italian embassy. Italy has sought international arbitration of the case, with a United Nations tribunal set to hold hearings this week.
An Italian government source said Italy seeks the return of the second Marine held at its New Delhi embassy, since the trial process in India had effectively ended after both parties agreed to international arbitration.
The sailors were part of a military team protecting an Italian oil tanker when, they say, they mistook a fishing boat for a pirate vessel and fired warning shots. Two fishermen died.
The EU plans to raise the issue of the Marines with Modi, according to an internal EU council note, which said that such cases can influence the global fight on piracy.
