Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel to the UK to attend the G-7 summit in June due to the coronavirus situation in the country. The Prime Minister was slated to be a special invitee to the summit in Cornwall at UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s invitation. The summit was scheduled for June 11-13.
“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 situation, it has been decided that the Prime Minister will not attend the G-7 Summit in person,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The summit that will bring together the world’s most advanced economies including Japan, Germany, France, US, UK and Italy, will be attended by US President Joe Biden.
In the first in-person summit of the G-7 in two years, the leaders are expected to discuss shared challenges including the pandemic and its impact on the global economy.
India was to be a guest, along with Australia and South Korea. The Prime Minister had attended the G-7 summit in France in August 2019 and was invited to the 2020 summit too that was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Boris Johnson was also scheduled to visit India ahead of the G-7 summit but had to cancel because of the COVID-19 situation. He had also cancelled his earlier visit where he was scheduled to be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebration because of COVID-19.
India has been battling a ravaging second wave of coronavirus. For over three weeks, the country has been reporting more than 3 lakh cases daily.
