Trump invites Modi to attend G7 summit in US later this year

India and the US on Tuesday discussed the border tensions between India and China during a telephone interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump. Trump had called Modi to invite him to the G7 summit in the US later this year.

The development comes days after the US president described the G7 group of industrialized countries as “very outdated” and postponed the summit to September. Trump also said that he would like to include India, Russia, South Korea, and Australia in the meeting.

“President Trump spoke about the US presidency of the Group of Seven and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G7 Summit to be held in USA,” the Indian foreign ministry said.

Last week, Trump had said that he did not think G7 “properly represents what’s going on in the world”. The group, comprising France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US, the UK, and Canada, was scheduled to meet in June. The summit was postponed to September after German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused to travel to the US amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Russia was added to the G7 to make it G8 in the mid-1990s and was a member of the so-called G8 till 2014, when it was removed following its annexation of Crimea.

Modi commended Trump for “his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-covid-19 world. The Prime Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed summit,” according to India’s statement. Modi expressed his concern over the ongoing civil disturbances in the US, and conveyed his wishes for early resolution of the situation. Protests have rocked many US cities after the death of George Floyd, an African- American, at the hands of a white police officer, it added.