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India’s foreign minister is isolating himself after two members of the country’s delegation to G7 meetings in London tested positive for coronavirus.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, said he was informed that he had been exposed to a possible Covid-19 case.
Jaishankar held a socially distanced meeting with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Tuesday, where the two agreed on a “migration and mobility agreement”, which will provide a “tailor-made route” for young EU professionals. India who want to live and work in the UK. He also met Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, earlier this week.
Members of the Indian delegation had not yet attended G7 meetings at Lancaster House, London, where talks took place on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday.
The meetings were the group’s first face-to-face meetings of the group’s foreign ministers in more than two years. Representatives from Australia and India are attending some of the sessions alongside the G7’s advanced economies, while the UK seeks to strengthen its ties within the Indo-Pacific region.
Coronavirus measures have been established throughout the meetings, including on-site testing facilities, social distancing, the use of masks, and Perspex screens, intended to separate delegates at meetings.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the decision to hold G7 meetings in person, arguing that it was important for the government to “try to continue as much business as possible” despite the pandemic.
“We have a very important relationship with India and our G7 partners,” he said while campaigning ahead of Thursday’s local elections. “As far as I understand, what has happened is that all the people in question are isolating themselves now,” he said, adding that he would hold a meeting with Jaishankar on Wednesday afternoon via Zoom.
Officials believe that, based on discussions with Public Health England, people who attended meetings with Jaishankar have a low risk of contracting the virus, as there were coronavirus restrictions and therefore no need to self-isolate. -se.
G7 meetings, chaired by the UK Secretary of State Dominic Raab, have focused on geopolitical issues such as climate change, vaccines and threats to democracy and come as the UK hopes to set its global agenda for Britain and post-Brexit foreign policy goals.
“As a measure of great caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to carry out my commitments in virtual mode,” Jaishankar wrote on Twitter. Officials said the rest of the small Indian delegation would also be isolated from the rest of the G7 meetings.
“We deeply regret that Foreign Minister Jaishankar is unable to attend the meeting today in person,” a senior British diplomat said. “[He] he will now attend virtually, but that is exactly why we have established strict Covid protocols and daily testing. “
The positive test comes as India struggles with a fierce second wave of Covid-19 that has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare system and left many critically ill patients struggling to access medical care.
India confirmed nearly 383,000 new infections on Tuesday, slightly less than the peak of more than 400,000 new cases on Friday, but tests have dropped sharply from a peak of 1.9 million daily last week to just 1, 5 million.
More than 3,700 Indians are known to have died due to Covid on Tuesday, bringing the country’s global toll since the start of the pandemic to more than 226,000.
But the numbers of both confirmed cases and casualties are believed to be dramatic, given the low probability of evidence, while many people in rural India die of respiratory problems and other classic Covid symptoms.
Supplies such as oxygen generators and life-saving medicines are dumped in India from abroad as the international community tries to help combat the deepening humanitarian crisis. However, many have complained about the slow pace of aid distribution.
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