Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaches Delhi after concluding visit to Italy, UK

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached New Delhi after concluding his five-day foreign visit to Italy and the UK on Wednesday where he enhanced India’s self-declared renewable energy commitments at COP26 in Glasgow and outlined India’s position on global issues at G20 Summit. At the Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Modi delivered a “seminal” statement and highlighted the range and depth of climate actions taken by India along with future goals that the country has set for itself. During his COP26 address on Monday, Prime Minister Modi announced five “amrit tatva” including the target to attain net-zero emissions by 2070. He declared that India will increase its capacity of non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW and meet 50 percent of its energy requirements through renewable energy by 2030. Highlighting India’s efforts to combat climate change, Modi stated that India is the only major economy that has worked and delivered on the Paris commitments both in letter and spirit. He also participated in the Build Back Better for the World (B3W) event and laid stress on four aspects in infrastructure creation including sustainable and transparent finance that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries.

Later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi and British Prime Minister Johnson launched the Infrastructure for the Resilient Island States (IRIS) initiative in Glasgow. The launch was part of the India-UK Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI).

He announced that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will build a special data window for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) for timely information about cyclones, coral-reef monitoring, coast-line monitoring through satellite. The 26th session of the Conference of Parties (COP26) is the first major summit that was held physically, where more than 120 countries participated after the COVID-19 pandemic. The prime minister also held various bilateral meetings with several heads of the state on the sidelines of the G20. He met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Pope Francis, President of the European Council, Charles Michel, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In Rome, the prime minister also met Indonesia President Joko Widodo and prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong. He also met French President Emmanuel Macron. Emmanuel Macron and the two leaders expressed satisfaction at the state of the wide-ranging India-France Strategic Partnership. “Departing from Glasgow after two days of intense discussions about the future of our planet. India has not only exceeded the Paris commitments but has now also set an ambitious agenda for the next 50 years,” tweeted Modi.