Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. File Photo
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on Thursday to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, thanking her for an invitation to the G-7 meeting in June, if he’s re-elected. The invitation for India to be a particular invitee on the G-7 summit’s outreach periods, due to be held June 13-15, was acquired by the federal government earlier this week, sources mentioned.
Among the invites New Delhi has acquired straight after election outcomes are out in June are these for the Prime Minister or External Affairs Minister to attend the Ukraine peace convention to be held on June 15-16 in Lucerne, Switzerland, the place G-7 leaders are anticipated to journey from Italy, in addition to for the External Affairs Minister to journey to the Russian metropolis of Nizhny Novgorod for the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting on June 10-11. However, each the Ministry of External Affairs and diplomatic sources mentioned a remaining response on all three invites may solely be anticipated after the outcomes are introduced.
“PM [Modi] extended his greetings to PM Meloni and the people of Italy on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of Liberation Day,” a launch by the PM’s Office mentioned. “[PM Modi] thanked PM Meloni for the invite to the G-7 summit outreach sessions to be held in June 2024 in Puglia, Italy,” the discharge mentioned, including that the leaders mentioned taking ahead “important outcomes from India’s G-20 presidency” throughout the G-7 summit, particularly those who pertained to the Global South points, together with meals and power safety, in addition to growth priorities.
Earlier on Thursday, the MEA had confirmed that India, which isn’t a member of the G-7 group of the world’s “most developed nations”, has acquired an invitation to attend the outreach periods.
“We have received the invitation, but at this point in time, it is a matter which is under consideration. As and when we have more details to share with you, we [will],” mentioned MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to a query.
India has been invited a number of occasions to the G-7 meeting since 2003 (previously the G-Eight till Russia was ousted from the grouping in 2014), and has been an everyday invitee in the previous decade. Given that Indian election counting will solely be held on June 4, and the swearing in of the subsequent authorities may take a number of days, it’s unclear whether or not the brand new Prime Minister would find a way to attend the G-7 summit, to be attended by leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.Ok. and the U.S., on June 13.
However, the general public reference to Italy’s invitation raised hypothesis that if re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi would think about travelling for the summit. Mr. Modi had final visited Italy for the G-20 summit in 2021, whereas former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was invited to the G8-G5 Summit ( that included G-Eight international locations and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) to Italy in 2009.
“[Ms. Meloni and Mr. Modi] reaffirmed their commitment to continue to strengthen the bilateral strategic partnership. The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” the press launch on Thursday mentioned.