PM Modi to meet leaders at Summit, says will emphasise priorities of the Global South
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the host, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in Kananaskis where he will also address the G7 leaders' outreach session.
Modi, who arrived in Canada from Cyprus in the early hours of Tuesday (India time), said in a post on X: 'Landed in Calgary, Canada, to take part in the G7 Summit. Will be meeting various leaders at the Summit and sharing my thoughts on important global issues. Will also be emphasising the priorities of the Global South.'
The Global South includes the developing and the less developed countries of the world.
This is his first visit to Canada in a decade. Relations between the two countries plummeted in 2023 after Justin Trudeau, the then Canadian Prime Minister, alleged 'potential' involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of a Nijjar – a charge India rejected as 'absurd' and 'motivated'. It led to downgrading of diplomatic ties.
Modi will be meeting Carney and Merz for the first time as leaders of their countries. All these meetings, including with Meloni and Zelenskyy, are likely to take place between late Tuesday and early Wednesday India time.
In between, he will address the Summit's outreach session on the issue of 'Energy Security: diversification, technology and infrastructure to ensure access and affordability in a changing world'. He is expected to touch upon the conflicts in West Asia and Europe.
In Cyprus a day earlier, Modi and President Nikos Christodoulides had 'expressed concern' over the ongoing conflicts between Israel and Iran, and Russia and Ukraine.
Reiterating that 'this is not an era of war', Modi said 'resolution through dialogue and restoration of stability is the call of humanity'.
US President Donald Trump, who was expected to be in Kananaskis for the outreach session Tuesday, left early for Washington DC.
This is Modi's first overseas visit after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
He is on a four-day, three-nation tour to Cyprus, Canada and Croatia.
His presence at the Kananaskis gathering, at the invitation of Prime Minister Carney, marks his sixth consecutive participation at the G7 Summit.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said, the 'PM will be participating in G7 discussions on the future of energy security, including diversification, technology, infrastructure and investment, to ensure access and affordability in a changing world.'
He said the Prime Minister will also hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit.
India has been regularly invited to the outreach session of the G7 Summit in the past few years.
India has attended eleven G7 Summit outreach sessions till date: 2003 (France); 2005 (UK); 2006 (Russia); 2007 (Germany); 2008 (Japan); 2009 (Italy); 2019 (France); 2021 (UK); Germany (2022), Japan (2023), and Italy (2024).
The G7 is an informal grouping of the world's advanced economies – France, US, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada and the European Union. Its members meet annually at the G7 Summit to discuss global economic and geopolitical issues.
On January 1 this year, Canada assumed the Presidency of the G7, for the seventh time. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the G7 Summit.
While India is not a member of the G7, the Prime Minister has attended meetings at previous summits. This will be India's 12th participation and Modi's 6th participation in the summit outreach session.
Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism '2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury's special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban's capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More
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