Italian PM Giorgia Meloni greets leaders with 'namaste' at G7 Summit

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday welcomed several delegates and heads of state with a 'namaste' at the G7 Summit.

Several videos of Meloni's gesture are going viral on social media, with netizens lauding Meloni.

The viral videos showed Meloni greeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with the traditional Indian greeting.

Italy is holding the current presidency of the G7 (Group of Seven) in Apulia, southern Italy, and is hosting the summit in that capacity.

The G7 comprises the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan.

On the first day of the Summit, United States President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were present along with Giorgia Meloni. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled for a session on the Russian invasion of his country.

WATCH: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni goes desi

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Apulia to attend the Outreach session of the G7 Summit and hold bilateral talks on a wide range of issues with world leaders on Friday.

During his day-long visit, Modi will be participating in a summit session entitled Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa-Mediterranean to be hosted by Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and joined by Pope Francis. The Pope is also expected to hold bilateral talks with Modi, who has a series of meetings scheduled with the world leaders on the sidelines of the summit being held at the luxury resort of Borgo Egnazia.

Besides India, Italy has invited leaders from 11 developing countries in Africa, South America and the Indo-Pacific region to attend the G7 Summit.

Though the European Union is not a member of the G7, it attends the annual summit.