India was one among eight countries invited to join the G-7 meeting in Hiroshima and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended several bilateral meetings with members of the G-7 who sit at the high table of the economically powerful agglomeration. But the focus seemed to be on the meeting between Mr Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mr Modi because it seemed to bring a sliver of hope that the Ukrainian President’s peace proposal could be conveyed directly to the Russian President Vladmir Putin.
Dialogue and diplomacy have been the route suggested all along by India with Mr Modi going to the extent of telling Mr Putin off with the “This is not the era of war” comment at an SCO meeting. But the point is whether Mr Modi’s personal equation with Mr Putin, or that of China’s President Xi with the Russian President, brings about the desired result of peace talks relating to a war that everyone would like to see the end of.
Russia is condemning the West, led by the United States, of escalating the war in its defence of Ukraine. It’s also warning that lending the use of F-16 fighter jets may prove an inflection point in the 15-month war that Mr Putin, who is said to be holed up in a bunker whose plans have been leaked to the West, and whose troops seem incapable of winning. Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive has been delayed, too, and it does seem that the world is watching yet another war without an easy path to ending it, for the aggressor as well as the invaded.
India stressed the fact that the meeting with Mr Modi was at Mr Zelenskyy’s insistence and that he was thankful to India for standing up for his country’s territorial integrity and for humanitarian aid, while India was grateful for his assistance in saving the lives of Indian medics in Ukraine who were evacuated after India took special efforts to create a safe corridor for their exit.
In the hardening scenario of a united West ranged against China and Russia, there might just be a place for India to be a well-meaning mediator between Russia and Ukraine. But then Mr Modi’s influence on the leaders of the two warring sides should meaningfully translate to quicker action on proposals put forward for talks. Mr Modi would have to use his charisma actively in such a good cause as ending a war.
