PM Modi to hold talks with President Zelenskyy
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to hold bilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Saturday evening.
Modi-Zelenskyy’s first meeting post-Russian invasion
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, it will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders and is taking place over a month after Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova visited India.
Moreover, PM Modi is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Japanese counterpart Kishida Fumio, French President Emmanuel Macron and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh among others.
Talks on Indo-Ukrainian bilateral bonds
The meeting between PM Modi and the Ukrainian president has been scheduled following a series of discussions between senior diplomats of India and Ukraine.
The prime minister arrived in Hiroshima on Friday to attend the annual summit of the G7 grouping in the first leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Along with Zelenskyy, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Oleksiy Danilov said that Zelenskyy would attend the summit.
Speaking to the media, Danilov said, “We were sure that our president would be where Ukraine needed him, in any part of the world, to solve the issue of stability of our country.”
“There will be very important matters decided there, so physical presence is a crucial thing to defend our interests,” he said.
Dzhaparova’s visit to India
Last month, Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Dzhaparova visited India, in their first high-level trip to India from Ukraine after the conflict began in the eastern European country.
During her visit, Dzhaparova handed over a letter to the Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi. The letter was written to Modi by Zelenskyy.
Since the Ukraine conflict began, PM Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Zelenskyy a number of times.
In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4 last year, the prime minister said there can be “no military solution” and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.
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‘Today’s era is not of war’
In a bilateral meeting with Putin on September 16 last year in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, PM Modi said, “Today’s era is not of war” and nudged the Russian leader to end the conflict.
India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.
In New Delhi, Dzhaparova said that India is a global leader and can help in addressing key global challenges and promoting peace including in her country.
Dzhaparova said Zelenskyy will be happy to address the upcoming G20 summit, which is being hosted by India in September in its capacity as the chair of the grouping.
(With Input Feeds)
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