Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ukraine will contribute to ending the war, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on August 22.
Asked for a reaction to Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Ukraine amid the war, Dujarric said, “We’ve seen a lot of heads of state and government travel to the region (and) we hope that all of these visits will bring us closer to an end of the conflict in line with General Assembly resolutions, international law, and the territorial integrity.”
The General Assembly has demanded an end to the Russian invasion in at least three resolutions and in another to stop attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. India has abstained on the resolutions. Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to go to Ukraine on August 23 where he will meet President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Kyiv visit follows his trip to Russia last month, where he discussed the Ukraine situation with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
According to reports, he will convey messages between Ukraine and Russia. An India-Russia joint statement at the end of Prime Minister Modi’s Moscow visit said that the two leaders “highlighted the imperative of peaceful resolution of the conflict around Ukraine through dialogue and diplomacy including engagement between both parties”. The statement added cryptically, “They noted with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices aimed at peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law and on the basis of the UN Charter in its entirety and totality”.
While India has kept up a veneer of neutrality by not voting for the condemnation of Russia’s invasion at the UN, Prime Minister Modi has criticised it.
