Zelenskyy red-flags ‘balancing’ act on war as he pitches for India to host peace summit

At a media briefing for visiting Indian journalists in Kyiv on Friday, Zelenskyy said he told Prime Minister Modi that the peace summit could be hosted in India.

“As for the peace summit, I truly believe that the second peace summit has to take place. It would be good if it could be held in one of the Global South countries,” he said. “We are very open to it. There are countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Türkiye and Switzerland. We are currently talking to those countries on hosting the peace summit.”

“I told Prime Minister Modi that we could have the Global Peace Summit in India. It’s a big country, it’s a great democracy — the largest one,” he said.

Whether that summit will be the next one or later is a question that will be something South Block needs to weigh in the pros and cons. The inaugural peace summit was held at a resort near Lucerne in Switzerland in June that was attended by more than 90 countries and global institutions with a sole focus on bringing peace to Ukraine.

Modi on Friday conveyed to Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an “active role” to restore peace in the region.

Zelenskyy said India supports Ukraine’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and it is “critical because everyone in the world must equally respect the UN Charter”.

“India (is a) big influential country, not only in the world (but) also through the circle of very skeptical countries. If we will change India’s attitude to this war and to Russia, we will stop the war, because Putin will want to stop it,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian President described Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to Kyiv as “historic”. During their bilateral talks, Modi invited Zelenskyy to visit India. “When you begin a strategic partnership, and you begin some dialogue, you don’t need to lose time. That’s why I think it will be good to meet together again, and if our meeting will be in India, I’ll be happy,” Zelenskyy said.

“I think, to understand a country is to understand people also. It’s better to be in your country because to find the key to your country and to your Prime Minister is to see your people and I need very much to find the key to your country, because I very much need your country on our side, not balancing between the US and Russia,” he said.

“It’s not about your historical choice, but who knows, maybe your country can be the key in this diplomatic influence,” he said. “That’s why I’ll be happy to come to India as soon as your government, Prime Minister (Modi) will be ready to see me.”

Replying to another question, he said, “We want him (Modi) very much to have peace summits, and of course we will be happy to work on it and of course, if he has his ideas, we will be happy to discuss it.”

“But we don’t change our territories on any propositions … we don’t change our people to any propositions, our territories our values and our freedom and democracy to any propositions … we will not change,” he said.

“PM Modi wants peace more than Putin. The problem is Putin doesn’t want (peace). I don’t know what they spoke during their meeting.” The Ukrainian President also said that Russia will have “significant challenges” if the world, including India, stops buying subsidised oil from it.

“Putin is afraid of losing the economy, he has nothing except for oil, his main currency is oil. They do have a kind of energy-based economy, and they’re export-oriented,” he said. “So, the countries importing energy resources from the Russian Federation, they will be helping the whole world.”

Asked about the discussion on defence production, Zelenskyy said, “We spoke basically about some technologies (but) we are open for a very big deal if India will be ready.”

Answering a question about India not supporting a UN resolution (against Russia some months ago), Zelenskyy said he wanted to forgo what happened in the past and “before new resolutions, we have to speak, we have to make more strong relations between our country (and India) before new decisions.”

“We will not have big challenges in our relations in the future. And I will focus on it, on future relations between our countries,” he said.