India stands for dialogue, territorial integrity and sovereignty: Government

India's embrace of Russia amid Ukraine conflict raises concerns in Washington and Kyiv, as Modi stresses dialogue over conflict.

As the optics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow and his embrace on July 8 of Russian President Putin raised eyebrows in Washington and Kyiv, India rejected concerns about its ties with Russia. 

“India has always called for respecting the U.N. charter, including territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the official sources said. Mr. Modi is believed to have stressed with President Putin that there is “no solution on the battlefield” to the conflict and that “dialogue and diplomacy” are the only way forward, government officials have said.. 

Also read: Modi in Russia LIVE updates

In particular, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the timing of the meeting, on a day Ukraine claimed Russia fired more than 40 missiles at various locations including a children’s hospital, killing 37. The Modi-Putin meeting and the India-Russia Annual summit at the Kremlin is being held even as NATO leaders and other western allies gather in Washington along with Mr. Zelenksyy July 9-11.

In a post on social media platforms that showed photographs of the aftermath of the missile strikes, including on Ukraine’s “largest children’s hospital” and young cancer patients, Mr. Zelenskyy said that the meeting was disappointing. 

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy [India] hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, in a reference to Mr. Putin. 

Mr. Zelenskyy had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi a month ago on the side-lines of the G-7 Outreach in Italy, seeking support for the peace process. At the summit in Switzerland that followed, however, India sent an official delegation, but disavowed the outcome statement, holding that both the main parties to the war, Russia and Ukraine should be at the table for a successful resolution of the war.