India “cannot just say [it is] interested in the end of the war” and should use its leverage over Russia to show concrete actions, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Times of India reported Monday that Zelensky said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the head of state of a large nation like India, can pressure Russia through trade and economy to help put an end to Moscow’s invasion.
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“Modi is the prime minister of a really huge country… Such a country cannot just say we are interested in the end of the war.
“Prime Minister Modi can influence the end of the war… blocking of [the] Russian economy, blocking cheap energy [resources]… blocking [the] defense-industrial complex of Russia [would] lead to the decrease in capacity of Moscow to wage war against us,” Zelensky told the publication.
Regarding the possibility of a Delhi-mediated peace deal, Zelensky signaled Delhi to take an active role in the upcoming peace summit in November.
“Undoubtedly it [could] be in India and Prime Minister Modi [could] really do that ... but I think we need to prepare ourselves… and only according to our format because the war is in our land... we have the platform, which is the peace summit,” Zelensky said.
He added that Modi could help return “1,000 Ukrainian children” among those who were illegally deported to Russia back to Ukraine.
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Modi has been casting himself as a possible peacemaker. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July on a day that coincided with a deadly Russian strike on a Kyiv children’s hospital, with Zelensky criticizing the visit at the time as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts.”
Following the brief diplomatic spat between Kyiv and New Delhi, Modi visited Ukraine in August – the first-ever visit to the country by the Indian head of state – where Zelensky and Modi had ostensibly been able to find a mutual ground with Modi reaffirming support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Russia is a vital supplier of cut-price oil and weapons to India, but Moscow’s isolation from the West and growing ties with Beijing have impacted its partnership with New Delhi.
India has been reliant on Russian oil and weapons and has thus far refused to explicitly condemn Moscow’s invasion. However, it is also courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against its regional rival China, leading to what some called a “diplomatic tightrope.”
Western powers have in recent years also cultivated stronger relations with India as a hedge against China and its growing influence across the Asia-Pacific, while pressuring New Delhi to distance itself from Russia.
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