Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday spoke to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and thanked her for inviting him to the G-7 meeting in June if he is re-elected.
The invitations New Delhi has received immediately after the election results in June include an invitation to the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister to attend the Ukraine Peace Conference to be held in Lucerne, Switzerland on June 15-16, where the G-7 Leaders, expected to visit Italy, the External Affairs Minister will also travel to the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod for the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on June 10-11. However, both the Ministry of External Affairs and diplomatic sources said that a final response to the three invitations could be expected only after the results are declared.
Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs had confirmed that India, which is not a member of the G-7 grouping of the world’s “most developed countries”, has received an invitation to participate in the outreach session.
India has been invited to the G-7 meetings several times since 2003 (it was formerly the G-8 until Russia left the group in 2014), and has been a regular invitee over the past decade. Given that Indian election counting will take place only on June 4, and the swearing-in of the next government may take a few days, it is unclear whether the new Prime Minister will be able to attend the G-7 summit.
However, the public reference to Italy’s invitation led to speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would consider traveling for the summit if re-elected. Mr Modi last visited Italy in 2021 for the G-20 summit, while former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to visit Italy for the G8-G5 summit (comprising the G-8 countries and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa Were) was invited. Italy in 2009.
“[MS. Meloni and Mr. Modi] reaffirmed their commitment to continue strengthening the bilateral strategic partnership. The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” in the press release on Thursday.
