PM Modi meets Ukrainian President Zelensky in person for the first time amid the war to hold bilateral talks

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Tokyo tomorrow. Significantly, this is the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders after the Russia-Ukraine war that started on February 24 last year. The Ukrainian president is attending the summit at the invitation of Japan, the current chair of the powerful grouping. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, PM Modi has spoken several times to Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as President Zelensky. New Delhi has called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, while Modi in comments seen as a mild criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin told him in September that now was “no longer an era of war”.

Prime Minister Modi’s appeal to President Putin for an “end to violence” and a return to the negotiating table for all parties was certainly a notch above India’s earlier apparently neutral stance, and a sign of compulsions to get out of the fence Although still largely maintaining a balance.

PM Modi’s phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin underlined that Delhi will now stick to the path of strategic ambition on the Ukraine crisis. It is a pragmatic choice, reflecting the complexities of a realist world and Delhi’s own position on territorial integrity and sovereignty, its unresolved borders, its fractious relationship with its two northern neighbours.

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In a phone conversation with President Zelensky on October 4 last year, PM Modi said there could be “no military solution” and that India was ready to contribute to any peace efforts. India has said that the crisis should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

PM Modi is in Japan to attend the Group of Seven (G7) summit. The Prime Minister is visiting the East Asian country at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

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Japan is hosting the G7 summit as the current chair of the powerful grouping. PM Modi will be in Hiroshima for the G7 summit from May 19 to May 21. He is expected to speak on global challenges including food, fertilizer and energy security.

Notably, PM Modi will hold bilateral meetings with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and France ahead of the Quad summit tomorrow. Yoon Suk Yeol, President of the Republic of Korea; Pham Minh Sign, Prime Minister of Vietnam; and Emmanuel Macron, President of France.