Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for a five-day visit to Italy and Britain. PM Modi will first attend the G-20 summit in Rome and later attend the climate talks in Glasgow, United Kingdom. During his visit to Italy, he will also meet Pope Francis in Vatican City.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join G20 leaders to discuss global economic and health recovery from the pandemic, sustainable development and climate change at the 16th G20 Leaders' Summit in Rome. Giving details of the PM's visit, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday that the G20 summit in Italy can yield concrete results on similar challenges to be faced in the future, including combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Issues like global health infrastructure, economic recovery will also be discussed.
Shringla said that the G20 is an important platform for India to engage with the world's important economies and set trends and benchmarks for global economic growth and recovery. He said that India will continue to be the voice of common citizens of developing countries and emerging economies in the G-20. Foreign Secretary said that during this Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Pope Francis in Vatican City and will hold several bilateral meetings besides holding talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Shringla said that the G20 will focus on the management of the Covid epidemic and any future pandemics, and the global health infrastructure will be discussed. He said that concrete results can come about this in the G20. It is also suggested to set up a mechanism keeping in view the future needs.
Shringla said that the G-20 summit is likely to discuss recovery from the pandemic, strengthening the global health system, economic recovery, climate change, sustainable development and food security. He said that India fully supports all these areas chosen by Italy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Rome at the invitation of his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi.
The G20 is a global forum of the world's major economies. Its member countries comprise 80 percent of the world's GDP, 75 percent of global trade. The population of this group is 60 percent of the total population of the world. The main theme of the group this year is People, Earth and Prosperity. Shringla said that after Rome, Prime Minister Modi will go to Glasgow, United Kingdom, to attend the summit of world leaders in the 26th Conference of Parties (CAP-26) climate talks.
