Even as the G7 foreign ministers on Tuesday pledged to intensify sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, India stays firm on the idea of peace that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave with the message November last year “today’s era must not be of war”.
With the G7 leaders also going to reiterate the “tough narrative” as set by the foreign ministers against Russia at the Summit to be held in Hiroshima next month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reaffirm India’s position underlining the necessity to address the Ukraine conflict in a peaceful manner through dialogue, diplomacy and peace, diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian. The PM will be attending the G7 meeting in Hiroshima, Japan to which he has been invited by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who visited New Delhi in March this year. PM Modi is likely to take place 20-21 May.
PM Modi’s address will be one of the events that would be awaited keenly by the global leaders. “PM Modi’s address assumes a greater degree of significance in the backdrop of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ pledge to toughen their stand against Russia over the Ukraine war,” sources told TDG. According to sources, the senior diplomats at MEA here discussed and analysed the outcome of the three-day meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa. “External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will soon meet the PM and share with him the G7 perspective on Ukraine,” sources added. Significantly, the document released after the G7 FMs’ meeting was in fact prepared as a template for global leaders to use at the upcoming G7 summit which is scheduled to be held in Japan’s Hiroshima. “It means that the heads of the G7 nations are also going to reiterate the pledge to intensify the sanctions against Russia,” officials said. “Therefore, the G7 leaders may then be expecting India to shift its stance and slam Russia for military operations against Ukraine,” they added. With this in the background, PM Modi’s speech, especially where he deals with the Ukraine war, will be quite important. But unaffected by any pressure tactics, India is going to stick to its long-held position on the Ukraine conflict. At the G7 Summit, PM Modi is going to pitch for a peace process to resolve the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, sources said. PM Modi’s message “today’s era must not be of war” that he gave to Russian President Vladimir Putin will be what New Delhi will continue to stick to. “These comments of the PM will be the guiding words for the global leaders,” said officials aware of the development. This message had made it to the G20 declaration released at the end of the two-day summit in Bali. The G7 is the group of seven richest nations comprising the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada. “There can be no impunity for war crimes and other atrocities such as Russia’s attacks against civilians and critical civilian infrastructure,” said the document released after the foreign ministers’ meeting. In what came as a welcome move, the ministers told China not to threaten, coerce or intimidate and refrain from increasing tensions in the East and South China Seas, referring to the militarization of the zone and its increasing threats to Taiwan’s sovereignty. The ministers asked China to behave as a responsible member of the international community. This narrative has also been set by the FMs to be reiterated by the leaders of the G7 countries during the summit meeting.