New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi landed in Calgary on Monday evening (local time), which was to attend the G7 Summit to be held in Kananskis village near Alberta. During his 23-hour stay in Canada, Prime Minister Modi will address the G7 outreach session on Tuesday and will hold bilateral meetings including host Canadian PM Mark Carney before departing for Croatia on Tuesday evening. This will be Modi’s first visit to Canada since 2015. Official sources said that their program is still working to ensure maximum bilateral busyness. There was no clarity till late on Monday if a formal bilateral meeting was to be held with US President Donald Trump. Not a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodimier Zelancesi has also been rejected.This will be India’s 12th participation in the outreach sessions of the G7 summit and 6th of Modi. India has been regularly inviting for G7 since 2019, indicating importance that most of the financially advanced countries group is added to India. The sources of the Indian government highlighted the fact that India’s economy is now larger than at least three G7 member countries – France, Italy and Canada.“India concluded its G20 president in 2023 and has a strong voice of the Global South,” an official said. India has always revealed the issues of the global South during the intervention made at the last G7 Summit. “At the last G7 summit in Apulia in 2024, PM Modi joined other invited countries in the G7 to discuss important topics such as AI, Energy, Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. “This session was an important platform, where G7 and outreach countries shared their ideas and attitude, carried forward collective efforts to resolve global challenges,” said an official.According to Indian officials, with its initial care on economic issues, G7 has gradually become a platform for consultation to find a common base on major global challenges including peace and safety, anti-terrorism, development, education, health, health, environment and climate change. Modi has raised the issue of terrorism in the past and is expected to do so again, as India wants to galvanize the support for its campaign to separate Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack.
