Pope, Modi to join G7 leaders at summit: programme

Rome: Pope Francis and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join G7 leaders this week for a summit focused on Ukraine and the Middle East.
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations, including US President Joe Biden, French Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, will gather at Borgo Egnazia, a luxury Italian resort, for a June 13-15 summit amid rising global tensions. .
Other guests were invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to wrap up the event, but will not attend the official G7 talks.
Among them are Pope Francis, who will attend a session on artificial intelligence, and Modi, fresh from an election defeat that forced him to form a coalition government.
It also includes several African leaders: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Tunisian Kais Said, Kenyan President William Ruto and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani.
Thursday’s opening session is Africa, Climate Change and Development.
This will be followed by a session devoted to the Middle East, followed by a lecture on Ukraine, which is considered the main issue of the summit, before the official dinner of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
The guest list published on Tuesday also included Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Argentine President Javier Mileh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who holds the rotating presidency of the G20.
The emirate’s president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is reportedly planning to attend, as is Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Italian diplomatic sources said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would attend, but his name was not on Tuesday’s list.
From the G7 countries came Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from the UK, Germany and Canada respectively.
Friday’s agenda will include talks on migration, the Indo-Pacific and economic security, followed by a discussion on artificial intelligence with Pope Francis.
The summit is expected to end at 17:00 local time (1700 GMT) and Meloni will hold a press conference on Saturday afternoon.