Image of NATO-G7 emergency meeting shared with a misleading claim about Modi not being invited - Alt News
Kalim Ahmed
21st November 2022 / 7:06 pm
Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile attack in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland near the border with Ukraine. The explosion in the NATO member state, which is understood to have killed at least two people, came as a wave of Russian missiles hit civilian targets across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv.
In the context of this critical situation, journalists reported that on November 16, US President Joe Biden had called for an emergency meeting of like-minded leaders. A photo of the emergency meeting was also shared across social media.
President Biden is hosting a meeting of likeminded leaders here in Bali imminently on Ukraine, Poland and the explosions in Poland that may have been caused by a Russian rocket.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) November 16, 2022
Professor Ashok Swain, a strong critic of Prime Minister Modi tweeted a photo of the meeting with the caption, “Biden called an emergency meeting at #G20 – India’s so-called Vishwaguru Modi is missing!”. Professor Swain’s caption took a dig at PM Modi for not being invited to the meeting despite being the “vishwaguru” (world leader).
Twitter user Kamran also shared the photo on the platform with similar captions as Ashok Swain.
While replying to a tweet of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, user @cheroor2010 also added the viral photo with similar captions. The user also described India’s foreign policy as “Hijda”, a pejorative for transgender people in South Asia.
We performed a Google search using relevant keywords and came across various news reports regarding the emergency meeting held by President Biden. As per CNN, this roundtable meeting involved leaders from Canada, the European Union, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan.
The Independent reported that President Biden had convened an ‘emergency’ G7 and Nato meeting after Russian-made rockets strike Poland.
The New York Times reported that NATO and G7 leaders issued a statement offering their full support to Poland’s ongoing investigation.
Based on this, we performed a subsequent keyword search and found the full statement on the website of the White House. The heading of the statement highlights that it is a joint statement of NATO and G7 leaders and the first paragraph also mentions the countries that were present at the meeting.
It is important to note that India is neither a NATO member state nor a G7 country. The NATO website says, “NATO is an Alliance that consists of 30 independent member countries.” We did not find India on the list. The G7 Germany website highlights Canada, the United Kingdom, The European Union, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, and the USA.
During a press conference on November 16, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that there was a “high chance” it was an air defence missile from the Ukrainian side and likely had fallen in Poland in “an accident” while intercepting incoming Russian missiles.
Reuters reported, “The United States and its NATO allies are investigating the blast that killed two people in Poland, but early information suggests it may not have been caused by a missile fired from Russia, U.S. President Joe Biden said.”
In summary, a meeting chaired by President Biden with G7 and NATO leaders did not include India because it is neither a NATO member nor a G7 member. Critics of PM Modi wrongly assumed that the leader was not invited due to its foreign policy. Despite being corrected that this was a NATO-G7 meeting, Professor Swain kept asking users to explain why Japan was included in the meeting. Japan is a G7 country.
Kalim is a journalist with a keen interest in tech, misinformation, culture, etc
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