Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday greeted several delegates and heads of government at the G-7 (Group of Seven) summit with a “namaste”.

On the opening day of the summit, Meloni was seen welcoming EU chief Ursula von der Leyen with folded hands, a nod to the traditional Indian greeting ‘namaste’.

In another video, he also greeted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with a namaste.

The G-7 summit, which is being held from June 13 to 15 at the luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia in Italy’s Apulia region, is expected to be dominated by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza.

On the first day of the summit, US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were present at the summit along with Georgia Meloni.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also left for Italy to attend the summit.

Before leaving for Italy, PN Modi said, “At the invitation of Prime Minister Giordano Meloni, I am travelling to the Apulia region of Italy to attend the G7 Outreach Summit on June 14.”

The Prime Minister said he was glad that his first visit in his third consecutive term was to Italy for the G-7 Summit.

“The discussions in the outreach session will focus on artificial intelligence, energy, Africa and the Mediterranean,” Modi said.

The G-7 comprises the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan. Italy is currently chairing the G-7 and hosting the summit in that capacity.

Apart from India, Italy has also invited leaders of 11 developing countries from Africa, South America and the Indo-Pacific region to attend the summit.

Although the European Union is not a member of the G7, it participates in the annual summit.

This year’s summit focuses primarily on developing mechanisms to protect the rules-based international system, which is facing challenges due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas.