With Global South on mind, Modi touches down in Hiroshima for G7 summit

HIROSHIMA/NEW DELHI: With the overarching objective of strengthening multilateralism and bolstering New Delhi’s role on the global stage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched down in Hiroshima to participate in the G7 summit of the world’s wealthiest nations.

“Landed in Hiroshima to join the G7 Summit proceedings. Will also be having bilateral meetings with various world leaders,” Mr Modi tweeted soon after his special aircraft landed on May 19 in the historic city of Hiroshima, the Japanese city which was devastated by a nuclear bomb during the second world war in 1945.

This year, PM Modi’s participation in the G7 summit is crucial as India holds the G20 presidency this year and will host the G7 summit in New Delhi in September. “I look forward to exchanging views with the G7 countries and other invited partners on challenges that the world faces and the need to collectively address them,” Mr Modi said in a statement in New Delhi ahead of his three-nation visit, which includes Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia.

PM Modi is expected to seek support of the leaders of G7 countries for core priorities of India’s G20 presidency such as food and energy security, green development and reform of multilateral institutions, said Manish Chand, CEO & Director, Centre for Global India Insights, a think tank focused on geopolitics and foreign affairs.

Another major priority of PM Modi in Hiroshima will be to project the interests and aspirations of the Global South in G7 and G20 agenda. In this regard, there is convergence between Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s efforts to rally Global South countries to actualise the G7 agenda. This explains Kishida’s decision to invite the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Comoros (African Union chair), the Cook Islands (Pacific Islands Forum chair), Indonesia (ASEAN chair), South Korea and Vietnam as invitees to the outreach session.

“The invitation to Prime Minister Modi is Japan’s way of recognising India as a leader of the Global South. PM Modi took a pioneering initiative to host the Voice of South Summit earlier this year to underline India’s focus on promoting core issues and interests of the Global South in India’s G20 presidency agenda,” said Mr Chand, also Editor-in-Chief of India and the World journal.

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