Narendra Modi to participate in second Global COVID Virtual Summit on Thursday

New Delhi, May 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the second Global COVID Virtual Summit on Thursday at the invitation of US President of Joe Biden. According a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, the summit intends to galvanise new actions to address the continued challenges of the COVID pandemic and build stronger global health security architecture.

PM Modi will deliver his remarks in the opening session of the summit on the theme 'Preventing Pandemic Fatigue and Prioritising Preparedness'. The session will be live streamed from 6.30 pm to 7.45 pm on Thursday.

Other participants are co-hosts of the event, 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. Secretary General of the United Nations, Director General of World Health Organization and other dignitaries would also participate in the event.

Modi had participated in the first Global COVID Virtual Summit hosted by President Biden on September 22 last year. India is playing a key role in the 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 healthcare workers, the MEA said.

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, the statement added.

Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat (a British overseas territory in the Leeward Islands), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago are part of the CARICOM countries.