PM Narendra Modi's Portugal, France visit cancelled due to spurt in COVID-19 cases: Sources

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Portugal and France has been cancelled due to a recent spurt in COVID-19 cases, sources confirmed to Zee News on Tuesday (April 20, 2021).

PM Modi was to travel to Portugal for the 16th India-EU summit that was scheduled to take place on May 8, following which he was slated to travel to France for a bilateral visit. The India-EU summit will now take place virtually. 

The 15th India-EU summit was also held virtually amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2020 as Prime Minister Modi had to defer his Brussels visit back then. 

India, going through the second wave of COVID-19, has been reporting over 2.5 lakh cases from the past few days. The situation is also dire in the national capital Delhi, which has imposed a complete lockdown for the next six days. 

On Monday, the United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also called off his trip to India for the second time due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation. 

Johnson was to visit India on April 25. He was earlier scheduled to come on January 26 as the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations. 

This is to be noted that PM Modi in March this year had travelled to Bangladesh to take part in the neighbouring country's 50th Independence year celebrations. The Prime Minister's visit was the first time he travelled abroad since November 2019.