Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Mariinsky Palace in Kiev on August 23, 2024. | Photo credit: AFP
Describing India as a “big country” with a “huge influence” on the Russian economy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said that if India and Indians “change their attitude” towards Russia, war Russian President Vladimir Putin will put an end to it. He was talking about India’s “record-breaking” deals for oil from Russia.
Acknowledging that India’s energy purchases from Russia were discussed in the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Zelensky, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the Indian side explained to the Ukrainian side the energy market scenario and the need to maintain prices “reasonable and stable”.
In an hour-long interaction with Indian media, Mr Zelensky described his meeting with Mr Modi as “very good” and “historic”. He said the top issues during the talks included India’s oil purchases from Russia.
“Since many Russian export possibilities are closed today, your country is open,” he said. “If you stop importing oil, Putin will have big challenges.”
He said Putin’s economy is warlike and billions of dollars from India or China have helped him. “We must stop funding Russian arms,” he stressed.
PM Modi in Ukraine: Will this change India’s stance on Russia-Russia conflict?
He said Mr Putin never respected Mr Modi, which is why Russia bombed a hospital in Ukraine at the same time. The Indian Prime Minister was in Moscow Last month.
Asked if the issue of India’s stand on the resolutions was discussed at the UN, he said it was not. “We are not happy that we did not get India’s support. We have to speak before the resolutions now. We don’t have time to look at the past. I want to create something good, something positive,” he said.
Editorial |Not taking sides: On PM’s visit to Ukraine
“I want your country to be on our side,” and maintaining balance, Mr. Zelensky added, “Maybe your country is important for this…”
The Ukrainian President said there should be a win-win situation between the two countries. He said there are opportunities for cooperation, including co-development and co-production in high technology areas such as defence.
Mr Jaishankar said restrictions have been put in place on a number of energy producers, making the market potentially very tight. “Why is there compulsion today, actually not just compulsion, but it is in the interest of the entire international economy that prices remain reasonable and stable,” he said during a media briefing.
Stating that India is a large consumer and importer of oil, Mr Jaishankar said, “There is an oil strategy to buy oil. There is a market strategy to buy oil. So the numbers on where we get our oil imports from go up and down. It depends on the market situation. But it certainly… I think the tightness of the markets, today large suppliers like Iran and Venezuela, who used to supply India, are constrained from operating freely in the markets, I think that is a factor that needs to be taken into account.”
Responding to another question, Mr Zelensky said no Indians fighting in the Russian army were in their custody. “If I find out that they are in our custody, I will release them,” he said.