Jaishankar's visit to London for G7 meet begins from today

London, May 3: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will embark on a four-day visit to London beginning today to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers of G7 countries. India has been invited to the meeting as a guest country.

 

 

 

The G7 members are Britain, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The meeting is expected to discuss ways to deal with the coronavirus pandemic besides several other pressing issues that the world is facing. It will be the first in-person meet of the G7 foreign ministers in over two years because of the prevailing pandemic. The last G7 foreign ministers meeting took place in Apr 2019 at Dinard and Saint-Malo in France.

 

 

 

 

 

According to British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK, that chairs G7, has invited India, Australia, South Korea, South Africa, and the Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to join parts of this year's G7 foreign ministers' meeting as guests. The EAM Dr S Jaishankar will also be meeting Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

 

India and UK presently stand at a vital stage of the bilateral relations between the nations as the Britain is desperately looking for shift in their foreign policy post brexit. The Foreign Secretary has earlier mentioned about the 'Indo-Pacific' tilt in UK's foreign policy that will be leading the country's future diplomatic interests and under such circumstances, India becomes vital for UK. It also comes as a opportunity for India to further enhance the bilateral relations.