Chidambaram laments PM Modi's 'virtual' G7 speech; says 'India least vaccinated'

Lamenting at PM Modi's 'virtual' presence at the G7 meeting held at Cornwall, Congress MP P Chidambaram on Monday, said India was a COVID-19 outlier as the 'most infected' and 'least vaccinated' state. Terming PM Modi's speech as 'inspiring as well as ironic' he urged the Centre to practise what it preaches. PM Modi addressed the G7 summit virtually during the weekend highlighting India's achievements on climate action, COVID-19 management, resilience against future pandemics.

Chidambaram lament PM's virtual G7 address

PM Modi's G7 addresses

On Saturday, PM Modi addressed the first Outreach Session of the G7 Summit, coining the Mantra of "One Earth, One Health". During the session, PM Modi highlighted India's ‘whole of society’ approach to fight the pandemic, synergising the efforts of all levels of the government, industry and civil society. He also explained India’s successful use of open-source digital tools for contact tracing and vaccine management and conveyed India's willingness to share its experience and expertise with other developing countries. Seeking the G7's support for the proposal moved at the WTO by India and South Africa, for a TRIPS waiver on COVID-related technologies, PM Modi advised the USA to keep raw material supplies open.

On Sunday, PM Modi addressed two sessions 'Building Back Together—Open Societies and Economies’ and ‘Building Back Greener: Climate and Nature’, highlighting democracy and freedom as a part of India’s civilization ethos. Stressing the need to ensure that cyberspace remains an avenue for advancing democratic values and not of subverting them, he called for the reform of the multilateral system as the best signal of commitment to the cause of Open Societies. Speaking about India's unwavering commitment to climate action, he mentioned the commitment by Indian Railways to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2030.

G7 Summit 2021

The United Kingdon hosted this year’s G7 conference in Cornwall from Friday, June 11 to Sunday, June 13 and welcomed the heads of from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Germany, as well as representatives from the United Nations and European Union. Two guest countries India and South Korea attended the G7 meeting via video-conferencing. Apart from a pledge to supply 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 20 lower-income nations, with the US pledging close to 500 million, the leaders also discussed issues like regional security, free and fair trade, climate change, values of open society at the discussion table.