Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday lauded Italy's "historic" friendship with Russia, saying it nurtured the "flourishing" business ties between the two countries.
"The flourishing economic and commercial relations between Italy and Russia of which we are proud and wish to continue to grow, find fertile ground in an historic friendship between our two countries," Di Maio told reporters in Moscow.
"These relations are based on an affinity between our two peoples and a solid cultural bond," Di Maio said after talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Di Maio underlined "the high level of complementarity" between the Italian and Russian economies and said Italy was sure bilateral trade and commercial ties could be further strengthened.
"We are confident that we can strengthen our partnership thanks to Russia's increasingly diversified economy," Di Maio stated.
Di Maio and Lavrov's talks took place on the sidelines of an Italy-Russia economic, industrial and financial council meeting co-chaired by Di Maio.