New Delhi, Jun 12 :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Italy tomorrow to attend the G7 summit in Apulia, in his first overseas visit since taking over the helm of the nation for the third consecutive time.
PM Modi will be participating in the outreach session at the G7 on June 14, which will be focused on the topic of AI, energy, Africa and the Mediterranean.
PM Modi travelling
“India’s regular participation at the G7 clearly points to the increasing recognition of India and the contribution of the efforts that India has been consistently making in trying to resolve global challenges, including those of peace, security, development, and preservation,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said at a special briefing here.
He said that India’s participation at the 50th G7 summit in Italy “acquires particular salience in the context of India’s presidency of the G20 when India took a leading role in building consensus on a number of contentious issues”.
The G7 under Italy has chosen key priority areas of focus including the conflict in Russia-Ukraine and the Middle East region with consequences for the global agenda; relations with developing nations and emerging economies with focus on Africa and the Indo-Pacific Region; migration with climate energy linkages and food security; and AI.
FS Kwatra said that PM Modi’s participation “will provide opportunities to follow up on the outcomes of the G20 under India’s presidency last year and deliberate on issues which are significant for the Global South”.
This will be India 11th participation in G7 summits, and PM Modi’s fifth consecutive participation in the summits.
June 14 is the main day for the G7 outreach countries, and PM Modi is to participate in outreach session with other countries, he said.
On the sidelines, PM Modi will hold bilaterals and discussions with leaders of the G7 nations as well as the outreach countries and the international organisations.
Italy as G7 president has invited Algeria, Argentina, Egypt, Kenya, Brazil, Mauritania, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa, Turkey and the UN to the summit.
PM Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with the Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. The two leaders had last met during the COP27 in Abu Dhabi.
The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK)—that meets annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security, and, most recently, artificial intelligence (AI).
US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among the top leaders attending the summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also scheduled to attend a session.
