Pope Francis will meet US President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Italy, the Vatican announced.
Francis, the first ever pope to attend a G7 summit, has been invited by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to speak at a session on artificial intelligence (AI) in Puglia.
Francis, 87, who arrives by helicopter at 12:30 p.m. local time, is also expected to speak about the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine during a series of bilateral meetings.
In addition to Zelensky, Biden and Modi, Francis will sit at the table with French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva.
He will also meet privately with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Teboun, Vatican News reported.
Francis regularly calls for peace, but the Vatican's efforts to find a diplomatic solution in Ukraine have yet to bear fruit.
The leaders of the G-7, which unites Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA, are meeting on March 13 and 14 in the luxurious seaside resort of Borgo Egnatia in southern Italy. | BGNES
