With G7 Summit Approaching, Uncertainty Lingers Over India’s Invitation and Its Implications
The optics of joining world leaders would have been politically beneficial for Modi, who is already facing domestic criticism for his diplomatic handling of recent conflicts with Pakistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was so certain of winning back power that he secured a seat at the outreach section of the developed world’s top table at the G7 summit in Italy a year ago, during the height of a fierce general election campaign.
Prime Minister Modi flew to Italy within days of taking office, indicating his diplomatic goals, even though the BJP failed to secure a parliamentary majority. He declared his triumph a “victory of the entire democratic world” to world leaders at the summit.
There has been no public hint that India has been invited to this year’s G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies, which is just ten days away.
A few foreign leaders are invited by the G7 host nation each year. Both the host’s strategic goals and the group’s overarching goal of interacting with emerging powers in a world that is becoming more multipolar are reflected in these decisions.
Manmohan Singh, the former prime minister, was a special invitee to five summits when the group was still called the G8. Modi participated in four successive editions after making his debut in 2019 while France was president. The epidemic caused the 2020 summit to be held virtually.
With repeated enquiries to the G7 Canada secretariat yielding only the typical response that an announcement regarding special invitees would be made in due time, Canada has kept silent regarding the guest list.
Nonetheless, it was evident from media reports that invitations had started to be sent out ahead of schedule.
Shortly after taking office in March, even before the snap elections, Mark Carney, the new prime minister of Canada, quickly sent an invitation to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In the first week of May, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made public his confirmation that he had received his invitation. On May 15, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called Carney and said she was welcome. According to Brazilian media, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, was also invited at about the same time.
Although it did not confirm whether the nation will attend, South Africa’s High Commission in Ottawa informed a Canadian news agency that Pretoria had received an invitation.
A last-minute VVIP departure from the Indian capital to Canada seems unlikely, given others have been invited well in advance.
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