Bari (Italy), 15 June

"Hi friends, from #Melodi", this is how Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni captioned a small selfie video showing her camaraderie with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two leaders met on Friday towards the end of Prime Minister Modi's day-long visit to Apulia, southern Italy, during which he thanked the Italian Prime Minister for the invitation to attend the G7 Summit. This was his first foreign visit after assuming charge for a historic third term as the prime minister.

The five-second video was shared by Meloni on her X account on Saturday. "Hello from the Melodi team," the 47-year-old Italian leader, the country's first woman prime minister, said in the video, in which Modi, 73, was seen laughing behind her.

Prime Minister Modi re-shared the video and wrote, "Long live India-Italy friendship!". Earlier on Saturday, a selfie of the two leaders at the G7 Summit went viral.

In December last year, the two leaders had clicked a selfie on the sidelines of the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai. Sharing the picture, Meloni wrote in the caption, "Good friends at COP28, #Melodi."

During their bilateral talks here on Friday, the two leaders reviewed the progress of the bilateral strategic partnership and agreed to strengthen cooperation in global fora and multilateral initiatives, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. "Had a very good meeting with PM @GiorgiaMeloni," Prime Minister Modi wrote on X.

"We discussed ways to further cement India-Italy relations in areas like commerce, energy, defence, telecom and more. Our nations will work together in futuristic areas like biofuels, food processing and critical minerals," he said after the meeting.