PM Modi to visit Italy, UK for G-20, COP26 summits

Modi will go to the climate talks in Glasgow after attending the Group of 20 summit in Rome next weekend

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Italy and the United Kingdom from October 29 to November 2 to attend the G-20 summit and the United Nations climate change summit, COP 26, respectively.

The Prime Minister’s tours to Italy and the UK are going to be his third foreign visit this year and after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. He visited Bangladesh in March and the United States in September this year after avoiding foreign tours for more than a year.

Modi will hold bilateral meetings with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on the sideline of the G-20 summit in Rome and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sideline of the United Nations climate change summit, COP 26, at Glasgow in the UK, the Ministry of External Affairs stated in New Delhi.

Read | What is COP26? What is at stake in Glasgow?

Draghi will host the forthcoming G-20 summit from October 30 to 31, themed on ‘People, Planet, Prosperity'. It will focus on the areas of recovery from the pandemic and strengthening global health governance, economic recovery and resilience, climate change, energy transition and sustainable development and food security. This will be the 8th G-20 Summit that Modi would be attending after taking over as the Prime Minister in May 2014.

The G-20 over the past few years emerged as the premier global forum for international economic cooperation.

India will host the G-20 Summit for the first time in 2023.

Modi will also attend the World Leader’s Summit of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Glasgow in the UK on November 1 and 2. The COP26 is being hosted by the British Prime Minister and the summit will be attended by Head of State and Head of Government of more than 120 countries. The COP26 was originally slated to be held in 2020 but was deferred to 2021 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Prime Minister last attended the climate change summit in Paris in 2015, when the Paris Agreement was concluded. The implementation of the Paris Agreement commenced this year.

The leaders will discuss Paris Agreement implementation guidelines; the mobilisation of climate finance; actions to strengthen climate adaptation, technology development and transfer; and keeping in reach the Paris Agreement goals of limiting the rise in global temperatures.

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