Prime minister Narendra Modi arrived in Rome, at the venue where the G20 summit is being held. He was received by Mario Draghi, the Prime minister of Italy. Italian Prime minister Mario Draghi welcomed PM Modi to Rome’s new viola cloud-like convention center in the Fascist-era EUR neighborhood. The leaders of the world’s economic powerhouses gathered together on Saturday for the first in-person Summit since the coronavirus pandemic, along with the climate change and global minimum corporate tax rate, covid-19 economic recovery on the agenda.
On Saturday Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis and he also invited him to visit India. According to the people familiar with the details of the meeting between PM Modi and Pope Francis, it is known that the meeting was actually scheduled for only 20 minutes but it was then extended for an hour, as PM Modi and Pope Francis had a lot of issues to discuss such as climate change and property.
Sharing his experience along with Pope Francis PM Narendra Modi, took to Twitter to post some of the pics of both of them having a discussion and giving a warm hug to each other. As he posted some photos he also wrote, “Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I have the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India.”
The last Papal to visit India was Pope John Paul II’s, when Atal Bihar Vajpayee was the prime minister of India, in 1999. And the invitation for another Pope to visit India has been extended during PM Narendra Modi’s Prime Ministerial term. He is also considered as the first Indian Prime minister to meet Pope Francis became the head of the Catholic Church in 2013.Â
Ahead of the G20 summit hosted by Italy, PM Modi paid a visit to Pope Francis. Prime minister Narendra Modi was accompanied by external affairs minister S Jaishankar along with the national security advisor Ajit Doval. PM Narendra Modi also met the secretary of state of the Vatican City state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Ahead of the historic meeting, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that the tradition is not to have an agenda for meeting Pope Francis and India would respect that. He said this on Friday during the press conference in Rome. He said, “I believe tradition is not to have an agenda when you discuss issues with His Holiness. And I think we respect that.”
He further said about the information about the Prime minister’s engagement in Italy. Harshvardhan said that PM Modi will discuss the global economic situation covid-19 pandemic, sustainable development and climate change with G20 leaders. He said, “I am sure the issues will cover a range of areas of interest in terms of the general global perspectives and issues that are important to all of covid-19 health issues how we can work together to maintain peace and tranquility and this is something that I think will be the general trend in the discussions.”
Prime minister Narendra Modi will now be heading on to Glasgow, UK. Prime minister Narendra Modi will now have a COP26 meeting at the invitation of British Prime minister Boris Johnson. The prime minister has also interacted with many people of various communities which include the Indian community and friends of India from different organisations in the Italian capital on Friday. Earlier Prime minister Modi also paid the floral tribute at the bust of Mahatma Gandhi which is located in Rome.
