Direct talks to resolve Ukraine-Russia conflict, PM Modi tells Biden; does not mention sanctions

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 11

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday told US President Joe Biden that the way out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to put end to its destabilising impact on global food supply and commodity markets was direct talks between the two Presidents which he had suggested in his phone calls with both Presidents Valdimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Describing the situation in Ukraine as very worrying, especially the reports of killing of several women, children and civilians in the city of Bucha, PM Modi pointed out that India had instantly condemned the deaths and called for an independent enquiry.

“I spoke several times with both Presidents and not only appealed for peace but also suggested direct talks. We had extensive discussions on Ukraine in Parliament as well. Recently, the news of the killing in Bucha was very worrying. We hope the ongoing discussions between Russia and Ukraine will lead to peace. We have also sent medicines and relief material and on Ukrainian request, another consignment of medicines is being sent very soon,” the PM said.

Though PM Modi did not touch on sanctions on which India and the US are not on the same page, he nevertheless outlined the huge importance of better Indo-US ties. “The progress in Indo-US ties have given a new momentum which would have been hard to imagine a few decades ago,” said PM Modi while pointing out that he agreed with the US President’s observations when they had met in Washington last September that India-US partnership can contribute to solving lot of global problems.

“The two democracies that are the world’s largest and oldest are natural partners,” said the PM in his opening remarks.

This virtual summit preceded the “US-India 2 2 Ministerial” between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Singh and Lloyd had met before the virtual summit for a separate bilateral.

Opening the virtual summit, the US President said the two democracies share the same concerns about global challenges such as Covid and climate change besides sharing a strong and growing major defence partnership.

Mentioning the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, especially Bucha, the US President hoped that the two sides would continue their close cooperation on how to manage and stabilise Russian aggression.

With Foreign and Defence Ministers of both countries flanking him and with the Indian Ambassador to US Taranjit Sandhu also joining in, Biden’s opening remarks were considerably shorter than that of PM Modi who shared the screen space by himself.