Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni is arriving in New Delhi this morning on a two day state visit to India. <br/><br/>Mr Gentiloni will be accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow morning. H<br/><br/>e will hold delegation level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow after which some agreements are expected to be exchanged. <br/><br/>Mr Gentiloni and Mr Modi will also interact with Indian and Italian CEOs. The visiting Prime Minister will call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. <br/> <br/>The visit is coming after a gap of more than a decade, is aimed at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries. The last visit of the Italian Prime Minister to India was in February 2007. <br/><br/>According to DGFT data, Italy is India's 5th largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade at 8.79 billion dollars in 2016-17. India's exports to Italy are at 4.90 billion dollars, while its imports are at 3.89 billion dollars, resulting in a trade balance of 1 billion dollars in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached 3.22 billion dollars. <br/><br/>A 15-member Italian CEO delegation will be accompanying the official delegation. Over 600 Italian companies are active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionary, insurance etc. <br/><br/>A number of Indian companies are also present in Italy mainly in IT, electronics, engineering, automotive, pharmaceuticals and railway sectors. <br/><br/>In the EU, Italy has the third largest presence of Indian community estimated at 180,000 after the UK and the Netherlands.