PM Modi decides against travelling to UK for G7 summit in view of Covid-19 pandemic

The Prime Minister was expected to attend the G7 summit as a “Special Invitee” on a request from Boris Johnson

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided against travelling to the United Kingdom to attend the G7 summit next week, in view of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is wreaking havoc across India.

India is not a member of the G7, which comprises Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the European Union is a ‘non-enumerated' member of the bloc.

The Prime Minister was expected to attend the G7 summit as a “Special Invitee” on a request from his counterpart in the UK, Boris Johnson, who would host the conclave at Cornwall in South West England from June 11 to 13.

New Delhi, however, conveyed to the British Government on Tuesday that the Prime Minister would not be able to attend the summit physically, in view of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in India.

“While appreciating the invitation to the Prime Minister by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to attend the G7 Summit as a Special Invitee, given the prevailing Covid-19 situation, it has been decided that the Prime Minister will not attend the G7 Summit in person,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said.

Modi may take part in the summit virtually though.

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The Prime Minister’s tour to the UK for the G7 summit would have also created an opportunity for him and US President Joe Biden to meet each other in person for the first time.

Though Modi and Biden spoke to each other over the phone and even took part in the virtual summit of the Quad on March 12, they did not have the opportunity to hold an in-person meeting even as more than three months have passed after the change of guard in White House on January 20 this year.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to attend the G7 summit. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also likely to travel to the UK to take part in the summit. The Quad leaders thus would have had an opportunity to hold the first in-person meeting on the sideline of the G7 summit, had the Prime Minister not decided against travelling to the UK to attend the conclave physically.

Johnson was earlier expected to visit New Delhi on January 25 and 26 to attend the Republic Day ceremony as the Chief Guest on an invitation from Modi. But he had to cancel the visit in the wake of the alarming rise in the Covid-19 infection in the UK.

The two sides then scheduled a visit by the UK Prime Minister to New Delhi in April, but he had to drop his plan again, in the wake of the resurgence in the Covid-19 cases in India.

Modi and Johnson finally had held a virtual summit on May 4.