Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has met with Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.
The talks on Thursday focused on strengthening ties between Türkiye and Italy, NATO allies and strategic partners.
Fidan will also deliver remarks at the think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali during his two-day visit to Italy.
The two ministers last met in May on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Türkiye's Antalya.
Bilateral relations
In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni co-chaired the 4th Türkiye-Italy Intergovernmental Summit in Rome, followed by a trilateral Türkiye-Italy-Libya summit in Istanbul in August.
Bilateral trade between Türkiye and Italy reached $32.2 billion in 2024, making Italy Türkiye’s fifth-largest export market globally and second within the EU. At the Rome summit, both countries set a new target of $40 billion.
Defence cooperation has also expanded, with Turkish drone maker Baykar signing a deal with Italy’s Leonardo on unmanned aerial systems in March and completing its purchase of aerospace firm Piaggio in June.
Türkiye is also in talks with Italy over Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
Italy is among Türkiye’s key energy partners through the Southern Gas Corridor, which has delivered gas to Italy via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline since 2020.
Some 50,000 Turkish citizens live in Italy, while more than 719,000 Italians visited Türkiye in 2024.
