COVID-19: Modi, Macron call for human-centric globalisation

As the coronavirus pandemic ravages world, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron held telephonic talks and called for enhancing global collaboration to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The two leaders also underscored that the pandemic crisis offers a new opportunity to forge human-centric globalization. PM Modi expressed his condolences to President Macron for the loss of lives as they discussed the domestic and international aspects of the crisis in a phone conversation on March 31. The leaders agreed on sharing of information between the health experts of the two countries to prevent the spread of the virus, and research on treatment and vaccines. “The French President strongly agreed with Prime Minister’s view that the COVID-19 crisis is a turning point in modern history, and offers the world an opportunity to forge a new human-centric concept of globalization,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. While stressing that there should be a persistent focus on other global concerns like climate change, which impacts the humanity as a whole, they called for special attention to the needs of the less developed countries, such as those in Africa, during the present crisis. Mr Macron welcomed Modi’s suggestion that practicing Yoga could offer mental and physical well-being to people confined in their homes due to the pandemic.  He confirmed that Yoga has been winning new practitioners in France during the present health crisis. Both leaders agreed that the India-France partnership could contribute to advancing a spirit of human-centric solidarity in the present difficult times. The coronavirus cases in India surged past 1200, including 35 deaths as on March 31, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Several states have reported new cases in the past 36 hours, while Maharashtra continues to lead in the number of detected cases. In France, the death toll rose to over 3500 people, with March 28 recording the highest one-day deaths at 499. (Sanjeeb Baruah contributed inputs for this article; edited by Shweta Aggarwal)