Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday and reiterated that India will “always be on the side of peace, placing the values of humanity over everything else”. The two sides discussed trade and industrial projects, which is a significant upgrade in conversation since the began almost four-and-half years ago.
After meeting him on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Evian, PM Modi posted on X: “Met President in Evian. In recent times, India and Ukraine have been engaging extensively. This has been reflected in different areas of our cooperation. Our talks today were about reviewing different aspects of our cooperation.”
“We both agree that trade ties need to be restored to what they were in the pre-war time. Also reiterated that India will always be on the side of peace, placing the values of humanity over everything else,” he said, tagging Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian President said, “I met with Prime Minister of India @narendramodi. Our countries have great potential for cooperation, and we are already implementing joint projects. Today, we discussed how to give them even more substance and expand cooperation across various sectors.”
“Importantly, the Prime Minister is interested in developing mutually beneficial relations with Ukraine and sees that this partnership can make our people stronger. There are good industrial and other projects that we can implement together. We agreed that our teams would work through all the details,” Zelenskyy said.
India has stayed in touch with both Russian President and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy since the war began in February 2022. Modi has spoken to Zelenskyy by phone at least eight times, and the two leaders have met on at least four occasions.
Their last conversation was on August 30, when Modi reached Tianjin, China, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit and was to meet Putin on the sidelines.
