Biden invites PM Modi to participate in the Second Global COVID Virtual Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the Second Global COVID Virtual Summit on May 12 at the invitation of US President Joe Biden. Modi will deliver his remarks in the summit's opening session on the theme ‘Preventing Pandemic Fatigue and Prioritizing Preparedness', said the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Wednesday.

The Summit intends to galvanise new actions to address the continued challenges of the COVID pandemic and build a stronger global health security architecture, MEA said in a statement.

Modi had also participated in the first Global COVID virtual Summit hosted by Biden on September 22 last year where the PM said that the coronavirus pandemic has been an unprecedented disruption and it is not yet over.

"Other participants and co-hosts of the event are the Heads of State/Government of Belize in its capacity as Chair of CARICOM, Senegal as Chair of African Union, Indonesia as President of G20 and Germany as President of G7 respectively. Secretary General of the United Nations, Director General of World Health Organization and other dignitaries would also participate in the summit," MEA said.

The session will be live streamed from 6:30 PM to 7:45 PM on 12 May.

MEA said that India is playing a key role in ongoing global efforts to combat the pandemic by supplying safe and affordable vaccines, medicines, development of low-cost indigenous technologies to test and treat, genomic surveillance, and capacity building for health care workers.

"India is also proactively engaged in multilateral fora with the objective of strengthening and reforming the global health security architecture with WHO at its centre," MEA stated.