Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met the Pope Francis in the Vatican today, a meeting which was scheduled for 20 minutes but went on for an hour.
“Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India,” said Modi in a tweet.
The prime minister was accompanied by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar.
The Indian prime minister has also invited the Pope for a visit to India.
It may be recalled that the last Papal Visit happened in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime pinister and Pope John Paul II had come to India.
PM Modi is on a two-day visit to Rome for the G20 Summit at the invitation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
There was no set agenda for the talks with the Pope. “I believe tradition is not to have an agenda when you discuss issues with His Holiness,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said yesterday.
PM Modi will then head to Glasgow in the UK for the COP-26 meeting at the invitation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Earlier, Modi had paid floral tributes at the bust of Mahatma Gandhi in Rome.
