Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Pope Francis on Saturday as part of his Rome visit for the G-20 Summit. This was PM Modi’s first interaction with Pope Francis.
PM Modi and the Pope discussed a wide range of issues which aimed at making the planet better, including fighting climate change and removing poverty. The prime minister has invited Pope Francis to visit India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Pope Francis to India He was accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar. The meeting was scheduled only for 20 minutes but went on for an hour, news agency PTI reported.
“Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India,” said a tweet from PM Modi’s personal account.
It may be recalled that the last papal visit happened in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and Pope John Paul II came to India. Now, it is during PM Modi’s term that the Pope has been invited to visit the country.
PM Modi is on a two-day visit to Rome for the G20 Summit at the invitation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
There was no set agenda for the talks with the Pope. “I believe tradition is not to have an agenda when you discuss issues with His Holiness. And I think we respect that. I’m sure the issues that will be covered would cover a range of areas of interests in terms of the general global perspectives and issues that are important to all of us,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said yesterday.
