French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Fort de Brégançon by bowing with folded hands, which is an Indian style of greeting called Namaste. Merkel reciprocated the gesture and greeted Macron and his wife Brigitte with a Namaste too.
Bienvenue au Fort de Brégançon chère Angela ! pic.twitter.com/6VSiTSAuJz
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 20, 2020
Netizens believe Namaste is after all the safest and most hygienic way to greet each other in the age of the coronavirus.
I am astonish to see the popularity of Indian version greeting (namastey), which is a very safe norm to use at this time of pandemic.
— Jagdish Singhal (@JagdishSingha17) August 20, 2020
What the British didn't learn from India in two hundred years the European's are learning in couple of months in Covid19 Pandemic
— kumaresh misra (@k1misra) August 20, 2020
The two leaders met at the French president's summer residence, Fort de Brégançon, located in southern France. The EU leaders discussed the coronavirus pandemic, post-election unrest in Belarus, and growing tensions with Turkey during their rendezvous.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic several world leaders have resorted to the traditional Indian style of greeting as people avoid handshakes due to the virus. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on his visit to China was also seen being greeted with a Namaste.
Pak FM Qureshi Reaches China 🙃
— MaverickⓂ️ (@Maverick_bharat) August 20, 2020
For you know🍚pic.twitter.com/towfYepTzP
Other world leaders to have adopted the Indian way of greeting are US President Donald Trump, the UK’s Prince Charles, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu even appealed to Israelis to adopt the Indian way of greeting to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The Israeli PM said: "Just avoid shaking hands as I do. You can try to implement the Indian system of Namaste or say another word like shalom, but find a way, any way of not shaking hands".
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even mentioned the Namaste going global during his address at the India Global Week 2020. Doctors have said the virus spreads through contact with droplets, which can further spread by coming into contact with an infected person.
Globally, the number of coronavirus cases has reached 22,678,483, with 792,708 deaths, as per data from John Hopkins University. The US, Brazil, and India remain the worst-hit countries in the world.
