Prime Minister Narendra Modi invites Pope Francis to India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday having met Pope Francis at the Vatican, invited him to visit India, sources say. The meet between the two heads took place for about an hour.

Italy (Rome): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met Pope Francis at the Vatican and held a one-on-one meeting with the supreme pontiff, which lasted for an hour. According to sources, PM Modi invited Pope Francis to visit India. It is known that the last Papal Visit had happened in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM and Pope John Paul II visited India.

PM Modi had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, sources say, adding that though the meeting was scheduled for 20 minutes, it went on for an hour. It is learnt that both the leaders discussed a wide range of issues aimed at making our planet better such as fighting climate change & removing poverty.

Modi took to twitter and wrote, "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. @Pontifex."

"The Prime Minister will have a separate call. He will be meeting his Holiness on a one-on-one basis. And that could, after a certain period of time, be followed up by delegation-level talks," Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had earlier told media on Friday while briefing the details of the Prime Minister's engagements in Italy.

Shringla said the Vatican has not set any agenda for the talks, and that he believes the tradition is not to have an agenda when issues are discussed with the Pope.

"I'm sure the issues that will be covered would cover a range of areas of interest in terms of the general global perspectives and issues that are important to all of us," he added.

"COVID-19, health issues, how we can work together...and this is something that, I think would be the general trend in the discussions," he added.

PM Narendra Modi arrived in Italy on Friday to participate in the two-day Summit from October 29 to October 31. He's attending the G20 Summit at the invitation of Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

This summit will be the eighth G20 Summit attended by the Prime Minister. Last year's summit hosted by Saudi Arabia was held virtually because of the COVID pandemic.

The Vatican is a city-state surrounded by Rome and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

Prime Minister Modi is also scheduled to have a meeting with President of France Emmanuel Macron, President of Indonesia Joko Widodo and is likely to have a meeting with Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong as well.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister will hold talks with Spain PM Pedro Sanchez and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the G20 summit besides participating in discussions on "Climate Change and Environment and Sustainable Development".

There will be a global summit on supply chain resilience, according to the sources. The theme of this G20 meet under the Italian Presidency is centred around 'People, Planet and Prosperity.'

PM Modi had also interacted with people of different communities, including the Indian diaspora and friends of India from different organisations here in the Italian capital and appreciated the role played by them in strengthening ties between both nations.