Modi to meet the Pope, tweets in Italian ahead of G20 summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Italy on a two-day visit to attend the G20 summit, paid tribute to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, in Rome on Friday.

“In Rome I had the opportunity to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi whose ideals are a source of courage and inspiration for millions of people around the world,” Modi tweeted in Italian before posting another tweet with the English translation.

Upon landing he tweeted: “Landed in Rome to take part in the G20 summit – an important forum to deliberate on key global issues. I also look forward to other programmes through this visit to Rome.”

Ahead of the summit, to be held over the weekend, the PM took part in a joint meeting with Charles Michel, president of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

After the meeting Von der Leyen congratulated India on “excellent progress” in its COVID-19 vaccination drive. “I congratulated India for its excellent progress on vaccination and for resuming vaccines exports. We need to join forces to help vaccinate the world and beat the pandemic,” she said.

On Friday evening Modi will attend a reception at the residence of his Italian counterpart, Mario Draghi.

On Saturday he will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican before attending the first session of the summit – Global Economy and Global Health.

Saturday’s schedule will also include a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Modi will also meet President Joko Widodo of Indonesia and Prime Minister Lee Hosein Loong of Singapore.

On Sunday Modi is expected to meet Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain and outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Sunday’s G20 discussions will focus on climate change, and environment and sustainable development. There will also be a summit on supply chain resilience, sources said.