“Of course, we are much more interested in a long-term agreement. The situation in Europe is a bit changed now. For the time being only, it is a possibility of collaboration in the short term,” he told UNB in an interview.
The ambassador said his country wants to participate in energy sector cooperation and their company, ENI, is already shortlisted by Petrobangla for selling the LNG (liquefied natural gas) in private market.
“We have worked a lot on that in Italy. So we have already some other sources of supply that can substitute the supply that we use quite from Russia. So when this will be again at a certain level, of course, we can start to export LNG in other markets,” he said.
Regarding Italy’s interest in offshore exploration, ambassador Nunziata said, “Yes, there are discussions but these are still at a level of proposal. We have to carry on with these discussions and see what will be the possibility there.”
A solid relationship
Ambassador Nunziata said the relationship between Italy and Bangladesh are excellent and there are spaces for increasing collaboration in some specific sectors. “This relationship is solid and has shown resilience during these years.”
On the trade, he said they have a very good commercial exchange that has doubled in 2022 compared to 2021 – more than 53% growth.
“So during 2022 and now 2023, we have already reached and increased the level of pre-pandemic time,” he said.
Talking about collaboration in the defense industry, he said there is a possibility of collaboration and transfer of know-how as well on a win-win basis. “So this is another important sector.”
The ambassador said they are in pipeline to have a memorandum of understanding in the cultural sphere for programmes of cultural exchanges.
“I don’t know when it will be signed. It’s not finalized, but we are really at the latest step to finalize an agreement in exchange of cultural programmes,” he said.
Traditionally, Italy has invested in the textile and garment sector but they are willing to provide expertise for the tannery sector, in particular for the sustainability of this industry and improve the quality of the treatment of leather to export to the European Union market.
On shipbuilding, the ambassador said they can build bigger ships for the defense or for the coastguard. “I mean this know-how that Bangladesh doesn’t have yet. Together we can do more on that in the shipbuilding as well as in other sectors.”
Indo-Pacific
“I think that there are many areas of possible collaboration, especially in the blue economy. Italy is a dialogue partner of Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). So we can already have collaboration in the blue economy within the IORA,” said the ambassador.
There are areas like security field, mobility, environment and climate change, he said.
He said it is very positive that Bangladesh published their own vision of the Indo-Pacific that match very much also with EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
He said the European Union will send an exploratory election monitoring mission in July and Italy as a member of the European Union, is supporting the idea. “And then if there will be the conditions for an observation mission from the European Union, of course, we are expecting. It’s a very positive development, the fact that the Election Commission of Bangladesh invited an exploratory observation mission from the European Union.”
