Prime Minister Modi was accompanied by NSA Ajit Doval and EAM S Jaishankar during his meeting with the Pope

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday had a one-on-one meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City and both discussed a wide range of issues, including climate change and poverty.

“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,” Prime Minister tweeted after his meeting with Pope Francis.

According to sources, a meeting that was scheduled only for twenty minutes, but it went on for an hour

“It may be recalled that the last Papal Visit happened in 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and Pope John Paul II came to India. Now it is during PM Modi's Prime Ministerial term that the Pope has been invited to visit India,” sources said.

The meeting took place ahead of the delegation-level talks during which they are expected to discuss a range of issues such as COVID-19.

PM Modi is on a three-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. And I think we respect that. I'm sure the issues that will be covered would cover a range of areas of interests in terms of the general global perspectives and issues that are important to all of us,” Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said d