G7 leaders appreciated India's engagement, PM Modi's interventions: MEA

Speaking at a special briefing, P Harish, Additional Secretary (ER), MEA, said: "I can say without hesitation that India's engagement with the G7 and guest countries stand on its own. That is his second G7 summit, as I have said, PM Modi has attended after Biarritz in France in 2019. This is also the first time that India has been engaged at a ministerial level and a working level tracks as a guest country. This is a significant engagement."

"PM Johnson referred to the four guest countries as forming a democratic-eleven and many countries appreciated India's G7 engagement and PM's interventions in the sessions, which found great resonance in the gathering. So I can say that our engagement was fruitful, it was productive and we hope to take our engagement forward in various initiatives including in the COP26," he added.

Elaborating on PM Modi's engagement, Harish informed that his participation in the Summit was based on three broad tracks - global health vaccines and recovery from COVID-19, environmental and climate change and open societies and open economies. The Prime Minister also spoke on the need for open and democratic societies to work together and strengthen each others' hands to defend the values that they hold dear and respond to increasing challenges.

However, the issue of China was not particularly raised by India during the summit, but the issue was being discussed in other fora, said the MEA Additional Secretary.

Furthermore, Harish informed that PM Modi stressed that democracies should demonstrate that they can deliver in the sphere of project implementation. "He has given India's example in neighbouring and African countries which comes in the area of our development partnership framework. The Prime Minister has also indicated that India stands ready to do more in this regard, keeping in view the ethos of transparency and inclusion," he added.

Speaking on the 'Build Back Better World' (B3W) infrastructure partnership, the MEA said that relevant agencies of the Indian government would study them and engage with them as appropriate at a later stage.

On COVID-19, Harish said: "The leaders of the G7 had a very intense and detailed discussion on the need for reforming global health governance. I would like to emphasise that India has been actively engaged with the international community at the levels of G20 and G7, the World Health Assembly on various aspects related to dealing with the current pandemic, learning lessons and preparing for future pandemics."

PM Modi on Saturday gave the mantra of 'One Earth, One Health' in his remarks at the outreach session of the G7 summit in the United Kingdom, government sources said. They said German Chancellor Angela Merkel specifically referred to Prime Minister's mantra and conveyed strong support. (ANI)