Russia-Ukraine war: Ready to contribute to any peace process, says PM Modi | India News

NEW DELHI: Reiterating that India has been advocating for the resolution of the Ukraine-Russia “dispute” through diplomacy and dialogue ever since the start of the conflict last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the country was ready to contribute to any peace process.

“We expressed our shared concern about the ongoing developments in Ukraine. We agree that these problems can only be solved through joint efforts. We are stressing on this even during India’s presidency of the G20,” said PM Modi at a joint press event after holding talks with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the dispute and its consequences on food as well as energy security.
On his part, the German Chancellor described the Russian “aggression” against Ukraine as a “major catastrophe” that has negatively impacted the globe and said it is important to state “very clearly where we stand on this subject”, including at the United Nations.

On Thursday, India abstained in the UN General Assembly on a resolution that underscored the need to reach “comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine and called for Russia to end the hostilities.
The German Chancellor’s two-day visit to India came a day after the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “This war violates the fundamental principle to which we had all been agreed for such a long time and that is that you do not change borders through the use of violence,” he added.

Briefing the media on what the two leaders discussed, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra told reporters that the ongoing situation in Russia-Ukraine “being one of the important issues on the global front featured fairly extensively in the discussions”.
“PM has always been saying that dialogue and diplomacy is the path forward for the resolution of any conflict. Peace is not something that is beneficial for just Russia and Ukraine. Peace is also something which is usually beneficial for the rest of the developing countries,” Kwatra said, adding “Because one of the most serious impacts of Russia-Ukraine situation has been in terms of food, fuel and fertiliser insecurity. Most of that impact has been on developing countries.”
Strengthening bilateral ties
The two leaders also discussed ways to ramp up overall bilateral engagement including in areas of trade and investment, new technologies and climate change.
The PM said there has been active cooperation between India and Germany in the fight against terrorism and separatism, and the two agreed that concerted action is necessary to end cross-border terrorism, seen as an apparent reference to Pakistan.
Scholz said Germany wants to deepen trade relations between India and Europe, asserting that two-way trade and investment would go up following the finalisation of the long pending India-EU free trade pact.

The PM highlighted that apart from being India’s largest trading partner in Europe, Germany is also an important source of investment in the country.
“Today, due to the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Self-reliant India’ campaigns, new opportunities are opening up in all sectors in India. We are encouraged by the German interest in these opportunities,” he said.
PM Modi also underlined the importance of reform of multilateral institutions.
“We also reiterated the consensus that reform of multilateral institutions is necessary to better reflect global realities. This is evident in our active participation within the G4 to reform the UN Security Council,” he said.
The G4 comprises India, Brazil, Japan and Germany and all of them are strong contenders for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
(With inputs from agencies)