{"id":40300,"date":"2026-08-15T07:34:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T07:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/40300\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T07:34:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T07:34:52","slug":"we-have-strong-ties-with-italy-should-be-respectful-mea-on-congress-leaders-meloni-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/40300\/","title":{"rendered":"We have strong ties with Italy, should be respectful: MEA on Congress leader&#8217;s &#8216;Meloni&#8217; remark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/mocking-pm-modi.jpg\" alt=\"We have strong ties with Italy, should be respectful: MEA on Congress leader's 'Meloni' remark\" title=\"Congress mocked Pm Modi by mentioning Italy PM Meloni\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Congress mocked Pm Modi by mentioning Italy PM Meloni NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs on Friday called to &#8216;respect India&#8217;s ties with Italy&#8217; over remarks made by <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/congress\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Congress<\/a> leader Sandeep Dikshit, while mocking PM Modi&#8217;s foreign policy.&#8221;We have strong ties with Italy. Our ties with Italy in recent years have expanded and strengthened in every which way, and it\u2019s important that, as part of diplomatic practice, we strengthen our ties, keeping in mind and being respectful of each other. There\u2019s mutual understanding between the two sides,&#8221; said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PSf84\">Share your thoughts in the comments<\/p>\n<p>InsightfulAgreeDisagreeSkepticalConcerningPromisingWorth ReadingBig Development<\/p>\n<p>Post Comment<\/p>\n<p class=\"swnca\">Be respectful \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiatimes.com\/termsandcondition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"gkv0P\">TOI community guidelines<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The remarks came a day after <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/rahul\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rahul<\/a> Gandhi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s approach to foreign policy at the Rachnatmak Congress national convention in New Delhi. Gandhi said he did not understand the idea that \u201cforeign policy means hugging leaders\u201d and used a hug with Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit to illustrate his point. Dikshit then brought Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni into the exchange, asking, \u201cYou weren\u2019t hugging me thinking I was Meloni?\u201d to which Rahul replied, \u201cI haven\u2019t reached that stage yet,\u201d drawing laughter from the gathering.Rahul then returned to his broader criticism of the Modi government\u2019s foreign policy, questioning India\u2019s role in the West Asia conflict and saying Pakistan had stepped in as a mediator between the US and Iran while India \u201csimply looked on.\u201d He also criticised the government\u2019s handling of the India-China border situation, alleging that China had prevented Indian forces from patrolling certain areas in Arunachal Pradesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Congress mocked Pm Modi by mentioning Italy PM Meloni NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs on Friday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1188,8329,12560,6031,26456,3866,12559,13205,5,26454,184,26455,3863],"class_list":["post-40300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-breaking-news","tag-congress","tag-google-news","tag-india","tag-india-italy-tiws","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-india-italy-ties","tag-italy","tag-mea","tag-meloni","tag-rahul","tag-today-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}