Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited by the United Kingdom to attend the G7 summit to be held in the country’s Cornwall region in June. The group that includes the world’s seven leading democratic economies — UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA — and the European Union, will discuss global issues like the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and open trade. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had cancelled his India visit for this year’s Republic Day event because of the detection of the mutant strain of the virus in Britain, is likely to visit the country “ahead of the G7”, a press statement read.
Apart from India, Australia and South Korea have also been invited to the summit.
“UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the first in-person G7 summit in almost two years to ask leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to seize the opportunity to build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous,” the statement read.
The three countries have been invited to the summit as guests to “deepen the expertise and experience around the table.”
Highlighting the growing cooperation between India and the United Kingdom over the fight against the coronavirus, the statement read: “As ‘pharmacy of the world’, India already supplies more than 50% of the world’s vaccines, and the UK and India have worked closely together throughout the pandemic. Our Prime Ministers speak regularly and Prime Minister Johnson has said he will visit India ahead of the G7”.
