Relations between Italy and Qatar are quite new. In fact, Giorgio Napolitano has been Italy's first-ever leader to visit Qatar in 2007. The field in which cooperation has been implemented the most is economy (export of Italian Goods and import of Qatari Hydrocarbons) followed by defense (Qatar is an important customer for Italy's defense industry). For this latter aspect, in 2010 the "Agreement between the Government of Italian Republic and The Government of the State of Qatar on Defence co-operation" was signed.
The Memorandum aims at fighting every type of illegal trafficking (especially drugs, weapons and persons).