Italian PM Giorgia Meloni welcomes delegates at G7 summit with ‘namaste’

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday welcomed several delegates and heads of government with a ‘namaste’ at the G7 (Group of Seven) Summit.

On the inaugural day of the summit, Meloni was seen welcoming European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen with folded hands, signifying the traditional Indian greeting ‘namaste’.

In another video, she also welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a namaste.

The G7 summit, which is being held in the luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia in Italy’s Apulia region from June 13 to 15, is expected to be dominated by the raging war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza.

On Day 1 of the summit, US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were present at the summit along with Giorgia Meloni.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also left for Italy to participate in the summit.

“At the invitation of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, I am travelling to Apulia region in Italy to participate in the G7 Outreach summit on June 14,” PN Modi said, before leaving for Italy.

The prime minister said he was glad that his first visit in his third consecutive term is to Italy for the G7 Summit.

“During the discussions at the Outreach session, the focus would be on artificial intelligence, energy, Africa, and the Mediterranean,” Modi said.

The G7 comprises the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan. Italy is holding the current presidency of the G7 and is hosting the summit in that capacity.

Besides India, Italy has also invited leaders from 11 developing countries in Africa, South America and the Indo-Pacific region to attend the summit.

Though the European Union is not a member of the G7, it attends the annual summit.

This year’s summit mainly focusses on developing mechanisms to defend the rules-based international system which has come under challenge by the Russian aggression on Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas.