Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India has civilizational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty and the country was a "natural ally" or the G7 countries in defending the shared values from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism and violent extremism, disinformation and economic coercion.

In a virtual address at a session on "open societies and open economies" at the G7 summit Sunday, Modi highlighted the revolutionary impact of digital technologies on social inclusion and empowerment in India through applications such as Aadhaar, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar- Mobile) trinity. 

The Group of Seven (G7) comprises the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. As chair of G7, the UK invited India, Australia, South Korea, South Africa to the summit as guest countries. Modi was the only leader who was not present at Cornwall, UK at the summit and attended it virtually.

In his remarks, Modi underscored the vulnerabilities inherent in open societies and called on tech companies and social media platforms to ensure a safe cyber environment for their users, additional secretary (economic relations) in Indnia's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) P Harish said at a press conference.

"The prime minister's views were appreciated by other leaders in the gathering," he said.

Harish said the G7 leaders underlined their commitment to a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific and resolved to collaborate with partners in the region.

India's participation at the G7 sessions reflected understanding within the bloc that resolution to "the biggest global crisis of our time" is not possible without India's involvement and support, he said, in a reference to the coronavirus pandemic. He said India will remain deeply engaged with the G7 and guest partners on all major issues, including health governance, access to vaccines and climate action.

Modi has sought “strong support” from the G7 countries for the joint India-South Africa proposal for a TRIPs (Intellectual Property Rights) waiver for coronavirus-related medicines and vaccines.

Modi and other guest leaders attended three special sessions along with the G7 countries, including one on global recovery from the pandemic and access to vaccines, where the G7 committed to donating a billion vaccines to poorer countries, as well as a session on Sunday on climate change actions leading up to the COP-26 summit in the U.K. later this year.

Modi had on Saturday appealed to the G7 States to take a united approach to fight the coronavirus pandemic and similar health emergencies in future with the mantra "One Earth, One Health". He said that there was a need for coordinated global response to fight future health emergencies.

Modi stressed on global unity, solidarity and leadership in responses and pointed out that democratic and transparent societies had special responsibility to prevent future pandemics.

He said India is willing to share its experience and expertise with other developing nations it gathered in contact tracing and vaccine management by using open-source digital tools.

He also spoke about the coordinated efforts of the Indian government, industry and civil society in combatting the pandemic.(SAM)