PM Modi won't be going to Portugal, France as Covid cases surge
PM Narendra Modi addresses Matua community
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won't be going to Portugal and France in early May as planned, in the backdrop of increasing COVID-19 cases in the country.
Modi was to travel to Portugal for the 16th India-EU summit on May 8th, following which he was to travel to France on a bilateral visit.
India has been reporting over 250,000 Covid cases for some days, raising widespread concerns. The situation is dire in the national capital Delhi, which reported 10 deaths every one hour in the last 24 hours due to covid.
The15th India-EU summit took place virtually amidst the Covid pandemic in July last year as the PM had to defer his Brussels visit back then.
The development comes in the backdrop of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson deferring his India visit for the second time due to Covid crisis. He was to visit India on April 25th, after having postponed the trip tothe country in January to be the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations.
The India-EU summit will now take place virtually. Also, the British PM and Modi will holdtalksvirtually on Monday.
Johnson said, "the relationship between the UK and India is of huge importance and I'll be talking to Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Modi on Monday, we'll be trying to do as much as we can virtually."
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"We'll try and replicate as much as we can remotely and then look forward to doing it in person as and when circumstances allow, and hopefully before the COP summit in November and hopefully we'll get Narendra Modi over for the G7 in June".
In March this year, Modi had travelled to Bangladesh to take part in the country's 50th independence year celebrations. That was the only time he travelled abroad since November 2019 amidst the Covid pandemic.