India has been invited to the G7 summit as an outreach country. (File)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reach Italy around 2.30 am tomorrow to attend the G7 summit, in which India is participating for the 11th time and the Prime Minister for the fifth time. He will meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The summit will be held between June 13 and 15 at the luxurious Borgo Egnazia resort in the Italian region of Apulia. Leaders have already flown in from the seven member states: the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and France. The European Union is a “non-enumerated member”.
India has been invited to the G7 summit as an outreach country. This will be Prime Minister Modi's first foreign visit since he took oath as Prime Minister for the third consecutive term on Thursday. He is expected to be in Italy for 24 hours.
Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra said, “This will provide him with an opportunity to engage with other world leaders attending the G7 Summit on issues of importance to India, as well as to the Global South. This will be the eleventh India's participation in the G7 Summit and Prime Minister Modi's fifth consecutive participation in the G7 Summit,”
He said Prime Minister Modi is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Ms. Meloni and the two leaders are expected to review the entire range of bilateral ties.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi are expected to meet at the summit: “He (Biden) expects to see Prime Minister Modi here. It is up to the Indians to formally confirm his presence, but our expectation is that the two will get a chance to meet. The nature of that meeting is still fluid because so much of the schedule is fluid,” he said.
There is also the possibility of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which will be of great importance given the chill in relations following his claim in September last year that India was involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The summit's agenda is likely to be dominated by the war between Russia and Ukraine and the situation in Gaza. There is expected to be a proposal to increase funding for Ukraine, funded by seized Russian assets.
Italy is India's fourth largest trading partner in the European Union, with bilateral trade worth $15 billion. Mr Kwatra said Italy is also a partner in several global initiatives launched by India, including the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative, Global Biofuel Alliance and India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC). .
India has also confirmed its participation in the Switzerland Peace Summit aimed at finding a path to peace in Ukraine, which will take place on June 15 and 16. It has not yet been decided who will be India's representative.
The Congress has said that Prime Minister Modi is heading to Italy to “rescue” his “diminished” international image after the Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP failed to win a majority on its own.
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