PM Narendra Modi to participate in second global summit on Covid-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the second global virtual summit on COVID-19 on Thursday being hosted by US President Joe Biden, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

It said the summit intends to galvanise new actions to address the challenges of the pandemic and build a stronger global health security architecture.

Modi participated in the first global virtual summit on Covid hosted by Biden on September 22 last year.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the Second Global COVID Virtual Summit on May 12 at the invitation of the President of the USA, Joseph R Biden Jr," the MEA said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Summit intends to galvanize new actions to address the continued challenges of the Covid pandemic and build a stronger global health security architecture," it said.

The MEA said the prime minister would deliver his remarks in the opening session of the summit on the theme 'Preventing Pandemic Fatigue and Prioritising Preparedness'.

"India is playing a key role in ongoing global efforts to combat the pandemic by supplying safe and affordable vaccines, medicines, development of low-cost indigenous technologies to test and treat, genomic surveillance, and capacity building for health care workers," it said.

"India is also proactively engaged in multilateral fora with the objective of strengthening and reforming the global health security architecture with WHO at its centre," the MEA said.

Leaders of a number of countries are expected to participate in the summit.

The summit will also be attended by heads of state/government of Belize in its capacity as Chair of CARICOM, Senegal as Chair of African Union, Indonesia as President of G20 and Germany as President of G7 respectively.

Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director General of World Health Organization and other dignitaries would also participate.

The Caribbean Community is an intergovernmental organisation of 15 member states in the Caribbean region having the primary objective to promote economic integration and cooperation among the members.