Rome: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held bilateral meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit, which is being held in Italy.
Modi first met French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed ways to further bolster the bilateral ties between the two nations as well as held talks on various global issues.
Taking Strategic Partnerships to new levels! PM @narendramodi met President @EmmanuelMacron of France on the sidelines of the 50th G7 Summit in Apulia, Italy,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal posted on X.
“The two leaders discussed ways to further strengthen the partnership including in areas of defence, nuclear, space, education, climate action, digital public infrastructure, critical technologies, connectivity and culture. They also exchanged views on key global and regional issues,” he further wrote.
The prime minister, who recently assumed office for the third term, also met his British counterpart Rishi Sunak and discussed bilateral relations and issues of common interests.
The two leaders shared a warm hug before the meeting. This is the first in-person meeting between Sunak and PM Modi since their encounter at the G20 Summit in New Delhi last September.
Sunak and Modi last met in person at the G20 Summit in New Delhi last September, when they had agreed to accelerate the FTA talks with the hope of signing off before India’s general election.
PM Modi also held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy’s Apulia region. It is learnt that Zelensky briefed Modi on various aspects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Day one of the Italy-hosted G7 summit was dominated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict as the leaders agreed on a US proposal to back a $ 50-billion loan to Kyiv utilising frozen Russian assets.
India has been maintaining that the conflict in Ukraine must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.
