Photo of Emergency Meeting at G20 Summit Shared With Misleading Claim on PM Modi

The meeting was held between G7 leaders, the European Commission, the European Union, NATO, and Japan.

Author and educator Ashok Swain, among other social media users, shared a photograph of a meeting held in Indonesia's Bali during the Group of 20 (G20) summit.

What is the claim?: Swain tweeted the photograph to claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not been invited to an emergency meeting of the G20 nations called by US President Joe Biden.

(Archives of more posts with the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The photograph shows a meeting between Group of 7 (G7) nations, along with Japan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) representatives, shortly after a missile fired during the war between Russia and Ukraine hit a village in Poland on 16 November.

How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we ran a search for any emergency meeting called by Biden during the summit.

• Biden convened an 'emergency' meeting between G7 nations and NATO leaders after reports of 'Russian-made rockets' struck Poland on 16 November, reported The Independent. 

• It mentioned that leaders of the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, the European Union, and the European Commission were in attendance at the meeting.

• The article quoted Biden as calling the strike "totally unconscionable," with the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling it "barbaric."

We found a similar photo of the meeting on the US President's verified Twitter account. He mentioned that they "offer their full support for and assistance with Poland's ongoing investigation."

What the official statement says: The White House released a joint statement of NATO and G7 leaders after the emergency meeting.

• It said they condemned the "barbaric missile attacks that Russia perpetrated on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure," adding that they would remain in close contact with Poland as the investigation proceeded.

• Reaffirming their "steadfast support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people" due to "Russian aggression," it stated that the group continues to hold Russia accountable for the attacks, "even as the G20 meets to deal with the wider impacts of the war."

The missile in Poland: Two people were killed in Przewodow, Poland, after a missile hit a grain facility on 16 November. Soon after, NATO and Poland officially said that the missile could possibly be a stray Ukrainian one, reported Hindustan Times.

• While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the missile did not originate from Ukraine, Poland maintained that there was "no evidence that Russia launched it."

• NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was not to blame for the stray missile. "Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine," he said, as per Hindustan Times.

Conclusion: The emergency meeting convened by Biden during the G20 summit was attended by leaders of NATO, the European Commission, the European Union, and leaders of the G7 nations.

Since India does not belong to any of these groups, PM Modi did not attend the meeting.

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