By Verghese V Joseph –
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may meet Pope Francis, just before his two-day G-20 summit in Rome, ahead of the COP26 climate summit at Glasgow in Scotland. In all likelihood, the Prime Minister is expected pay a courtesy call on Friday.
Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to leave for Rome to attend the G-20 summit on October 30 and October 31. However, upon his tight schedule, PM Modi is very much likely to meet Holy Father in the Vatican on October 29th before attending the summit and is expected to leave for Rome a day earlier for October 28.
The G20 summit to be held in Rome will be the first in-person meeting of this economic group ever since the pandemic broke out. The summit is important for India because it will join the new troika — the past, present and future chairs of the G20 summit. After Italy, Indonesia will organise the G20 summit and after that India will host the summit meeting of this group.
While the government is tight-lipped about PM Modi’s travel itinerary, it is understood that he will leave India a day early on October 28 night to meet the 84-year-old sovereign of Vatican City State as a courtesy call.
As per schedule, PM Modi will attend the G-20 summit on October 30-31 before flying off to Glasgow in Scotland to attend the COP26 summit for strategizing on how to deal with challenges arising from climate change and also attend key events on the sidelines of the climate change summit with UK PM Boris Johnson.