India to join Ukraine peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia

India will take part in the Ukraine peace talks to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on August 5 and 6, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry, Arindam Bagchi, announced during a news briefing on Thursday (03).

The talks have been initiated by Saudi Arabia, which extended invitations to Western nations, Ukraine, and several major developing countries, to discuss the peace plan proposed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier this year.

“India will participate in this event. Our participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward,” he said.

Russia, which has not been invited, said on Monday that it will follow the discussions. Ukraine has said that the Kremlin was not welcome at the talks.

Zelenskiy’s plan calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders.

The Ukrainian leader had invited India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to join his peace plan on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan in May.

New Delhi has refused to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine last year, frustrating several western nations. At the same time, India has increased its trade with Russia driven by record-high oil purchases.

However, last year Modi told Russian president Vladimir Putin that this is “not an era of war”.

As the chair of the G20 block this year, India will host the summit meeting in September, to which US president Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping, Putin and other leaders have been invited.

(Reuters)