Modi welcomed with singing of ‘Modi Hai Bharat Ka Gehna’ as he arrives in Glasgow

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (local time) was greeted with cheering and singing of “Modi Hai Bharat Ka Gehna” as he arrived at a hotel in Glasgow.

He is on a two-day visit to participate in the crucial 26th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-26).

PM Modi also interacted with a child from the Indian community present at the hotel.

COP-26 is being held from October 31 to November 12 under the Presidency of the UK partnering with Italy.

The high-level segment of COP-26, titled the World Leaders’ Summit (WLS), will be held on November 1-2. The Summit will be attended by Heads of State/Government of more than 120 countries.

This comes after PM Modi participated in the G20 summit and in the Summit on Global Supply Chain Resilience, on the sidelines of the G20. He also met outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Rome.

Prime Minister Modi on Sunday described the G20 Summit as “fruitful” and said, “During the Summit, we were able to have elaborate deliberations on issues of global importance such as fighting the pandemic, improving health infrastructure, boosting economic cooperation and furthering innovation.”

Earlier on Saturday, world leaders including PM Modi kicked off the first session of the G20 Rome Summit and discussed the global economy and health.

On the sidelines of G20, PM Modi interacted with several world leaders including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Among other dignitaries that he was seen greeting included Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Modi had also met Pope Francis on Saturday and presented him a silver candle stand and a book on India’s commitment to the environment during their meeting at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

Modi also invited Pope to visit India during a “very warm” meeting at the Vatican City which lasted for an hour. He also met his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong.

Indian PM will hold numerous bilateral meetings on the sidelines of COP-26, including with the Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson.

COP-26 was originally slated to be held in 2020, but was deferred to 2021 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, addressing a special briefing on the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UK for COP26, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla noted that India is taking ambitious action on expanding clean and renewable energy.

He said that the country will work towards mobilisation of climate finance and for action to strengthen climate adaptation technology development at COP26 in Glasgow.

He said Prime Minister will deliver a national statement at the World Leaders Summit of COP26 on November 1.

PM Modi will participate in a leader’s event organized by the COP26 presidency around the themes of climate change, mitigation, adaptation and building resilience, clean technology innovation.

He last attended the COP-21 in Paris in 2015, when the Paris Agreement was concluded, and whose implementation commences this year.

At COP-26, the parties will work to achieve the completion of Paris Agreement implementation guidelines; the mobilisation of climate finance; actions to strengthen climate adaptation, technology development and transfer; and keeping in reach the Paris Agreement goals of limiting the rise in global temperatures. (ANI)