Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his first foreign trip since being re-elected for a third term in June, and is in the spotlight among Western allies as he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Prime Minister Modi spoke on Monday, hours after Russian bombings killed at least 41 people in Ukraine, including a children's hospital in Kiev, sparking global condemnation.
A photo taken in Moscow shows a smiling Mr Modi embracing the Russian president. A video of a smiling Mr Putin calling Mr Modi “my dearest friend” and saying “I am glad to meet him” has gone viral in India.
Prime Minister Modi's two-day visit to the Kremlin is his first since 2019 and coincides with a NATO summit in Washington where the 2022 invasion is expected to be a major topic.
India, a major global economy, has close ties to both Russia and the United States, and partners and officials in Delhi have brushed aside questions about the timing of Modi’s visit, saying the annual summit is part of a long-standing strategic partnership and that the schedule has nothing to do with the NATO summit.
But there was a bitter note as the United States expressed its concerns, with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller urging Modi to emphasize Ukraine’s territorial integrity at their talks in Moscow.
Mr Miller also said the United States had raised concerns with India about its relations with Russia.
“We urge India, like all countries engaging with Russia, to make clear that any solution to the Ukraine conflict must respect the UN Charter, respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and Ukraine's sovereignty,” he told a news conference on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went even further and expressed his candid words., Out.
“It is a tremendous disappointment and a devastating blow to the peace effort to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy embracing one of the world’s most brutal criminals in Moscow on this day,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) late Monday.
The NATO summit in Washington, which begins Tuesday, is being held to mark the 75th anniversary of the Western defense grouping that was formed primarily as a bulwark against the Soviet Union after World War II.
While NATO countries have vehemently opposed Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, India and Prime Minister Modi have refrained from explicitly criticizing President Putin, other than calling for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict.
As Western powers seek to isolate Moscow through sanctions, President Putin is holding summits with leaders of major countries including China, India and Turkey.
Some are asking whether Mr Modi’s presence in Moscow now could be to Mr Putin’s advantage. Could the message India is sending be playing into Russia’s hands?
