India’s foreign minister pulled out of face to face meetings at a G7 event in London on Wednesday due to perceived risk of Covid.
Diplomats from the G-7 group of rich countries are holding their first face-to-face meeting in quite a while, with social distancing and different measures set up to check the spread of the infection.
India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted that he was “made mindful the previous evening of exposure to conceivable Coronavirus positive cases. As a measure of caution and furthermore to protect others, I chose to conduct my engagement in the virtual mode.”
Britain’s foreign office, which coordinated the meeting, didn’t promptly affirm whether any representatives had tested positive.
Representatives going to the occasion at Lancaster House in London have been noticing social distancing and are isolated by transparent screens in meetings, and are tested every day for the infection.
India isn’t a G-7 member yet was welcomed alongside South Korea, Australia and South Africa as a visitor for the second day of the meeting on Wednesday.
The guest’s nation’s delegations didn’t go to the meeting on Tuesday; however Jaishankar has held meetings in London with authorities including British Home Secretary Priti Patel and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
U.S. State Department representative Ned Cost said “the U.S. delegation was advised, by the U.K’s. public health experts, that our masking, social distancing, and every day testing conventions would allow us to proceed with our G-7 exercises as arranged.”
“We have no reason to believe any of our delegation is in danger,” he said.
Britain’s foreign Office said it lamented that Jaishankar couldn’t go to the meeting face to face, “yet this is actually why we have set up strict Covid protocols and every day testing.”
India is encountering a huge flare-up of Coronavirus, with 382,315 newly affirmed cases and 3,780 confirmed deaths just now, in what is broadly accepted to be an undercount.
The second day of the two-day G-7 meeting on Wednesday is because of spotlight on efforts to support open societies and make Covid vaccines accessible all throughout the planet.
The U.K., which holds the G-7 presidency this year, is due to host the group leaders at a summit in Cornwall, southwest Britain, in June.
