New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated for prioritising diplomacy in resolving the Ukraine war during separate phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (March 19).
The two calls took place ahead of Ukrainian foreign minister Dmitry Kuleba’s visit to India next week, where he is likely to call for greater involvement by New Delhi in the peace process.
Modi first telephoned Putin to reiterate that India has consistently favoured “dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward”, as per the Indian readout.
The Kremlin version only stated in passing that the “situation around Ukraine” was discussed by the two leaders.
This was the first talk between the two leaders following Putin’s re-election for another six years last weekend.
India has, so far, refused to criticise Moscow for initiating the conflict, but has asked both sides to minimise the targeting of civilians.
Simultaneously, India has emerged as one of Russia’s major purchasers of crude oil.
Since the start of the conflict, Russia has now become the top supplier of crude oil to India, accounting for nearly one-third of its imports.
However, India has also increased its export of refined crude to Europe by over 115% during the same period when the continent has stopped all economic activity with Moscow.
About two hours later, Modi tweeted that he also had a telephone conversation with the Ukrainian leader.
Had a good conversation with President @ZelenskyyUa on strengthening the India-Ukraine partnership. Conveyed India’s consistent support for all efforts for peace and bringing an early end to the ongoing conflict. India will continue to provide humanitarian assistance guided by…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2024
“Conveyed India’s consistent support for all efforts for peace and bringing an early end to the ongoing conflict. India will continue to provide humanitarian assistance guided by our people-centric approach,” said Modi’s post on X (formerly Twitter).
The Indian press note further added that New Delhi also told Ukraine about the need for “dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward”.
“He highlighted that India supports all efforts for an early and peaceful resolution of all issues between the Parties. He added that India would continue to do everything within its means to support a peaceful solution,” said the external affairs ministry’s press release.
The Ukrainian president mentioned that he hoped that India would attend a ‘global’ peace summit planned to take place in Switzerland later this year
“It will be important for us to see India attend the inaugural Peace Summit, which is currently being prepared in Switzerland”.
He also referred to the forthcoming visit of the foreign minister to New Delhi.
“We discussed the development of our bilateral relations, which should include a meeting of our teams and a session of the intergovernmental commission on cooperation in New Delhi in the nearest future,” tweeted Zelenskyy.
