French envoy Emmanuel Lenin, quoted by news agency PTI, said that one of the major actions by Indian and French leaders in the past few months is to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to return to diplomacy to resolve the Ukraine crisis.
“Both India and France are working to mitigate the consequences of the war on food and energy security in Ukraine,” the French envoy told PTI. want to return. And that’s what we want to avoid in Europe, anywhere else.”
Lenin also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks to Putin on the sidelines of a regional security bloc summit in Uzbekistan in September this year. “I think it was a very welcome comment. We have a lot of respect for India’s autonomy of decision on war,” he said.
PM Modi told Putin that now is not the time for war, food, fertilizer and fuel security is one of the major concerns of the world at this time.
Speaking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the French envoy said that it is very important for countries to stand by each other and protect international rules. “We think this is a naked attack by one country on another – aggression without any provocation,” he told PTI.
“We need the exact same kind of statements asking Putin to stop this war of aggression and get back to the negotiating table,” he said.
Earlier in July this year, PM Modi urged Putin to use diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the Ukraine conflict. The prime minister called for peace and an end to hostilities for both Russia and Ukraine since the conflict broke out in Ukraine on 24 February.
During his talks over the past few months, Prime Minister Modi had also discussed the impact of conflict in Eastern Europe on the state of food security, especially in vulnerable countries, with world leaders at the G7 Outreach Summit.
France and India have been in touch with each other over the Ukraine crisis and the issue figured prominently during telephone conversations between Modi and Macron in recent months.
on Friday, Putin captured four regions In a grand ceremony in the Kremlin in Ukraine, controlled by his forces, he urged Kyiv to lay down its arms and negotiate an end to the seven-month fighting.
The Kremlin declared that any attack against that region would be considered an attack on Russia itself. It has also been said that Russia will fight to capture the entire eastern Donbass region.
The envoy said France strongly condemned Russia’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories and called it a serious violation of both international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty.
(with PTI inputs)
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