Modi to talk to UK, EU heads virtually

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold Summits this week in virtual format with Britain on Tuesday and the European Union (EU) on Saturday, amid huge Covid assistance extended by both. Britain had earlier quit the EU.

PM Modi also spoke on Monday to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in which they discussed the prevailing Covid situation in India including India’s ongoing efforts to contain the second wave of the pandemic that is battering the country.

PM Modi “expressed his appreciation of the EU and its Member States for mobilising quick support for India’s fight against the second wave” of Covid, the MEA said.

On Tuesday, PM Modi will hold a Virtual Summit with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during which a “comprehensive Roadmap 2030 will be launched which will pave the way for further expanding and deepening India-UK cooperation over the next decade across five key areas, namely peopleto-people relationship, trade and prosperity, defence and security, climate action and healthcare”. Cooperation in batting the pandemic will aso be discussed.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar is already in London from May 3-6 to participate in the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting, at which India has been invited as a guest country. He will thereafter begin a bilateral visit to the UK.

Ahead of the Summitlevel meeting with the EU later this week on Saturday, PM Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday agreed that the forthcoming India-EU Leaders’ Meeting on May 8 in virtual format was an “important opportunity to provide renewed momentum to the already multifaceted India-EU relationship”.