NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered to help in peace efforts in the Ukraine crisis, during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Modi expressed his “deep anguish about the loss of life and property due to the ongoing conflict” while reiterating his call for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to dialogue, a government statement said.
Modi expressed his “deep anguish about the loss of life and property due to the ongoing conflict” while Zelenskiy briefed him about the conflict situation in Ukraine, the statement said.
On Friday, India along with China and United Arab Emirates abstained from voting for a UN Security Council resolution to deplore Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, drawing criticism in the West but praise from Moscow with which it has long standing defense ties.
The Russian Embassy in New Delhi, in a message on Twitter, said it appreciated India’s “independent and balanced” position in the vote. In the past, India depended on Russia’s support and its veto power in the UN security council in its dispute over Kashmir with its longtime rival Pakistan.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory.
Modi also raised the issue of the safety of Indian citizens, particularly students, stuck in Ukraine, and asked for help to evacuate them.
India has sent teams to Poland, Hungary and Romania to evacuate Indian citizens, who have been asked to reach countries neighboring Ukraine. An Indian flight carrying about 200 students evacuated from Ukraine via Romania landed in Mumbai on Friday evening.
India’s Modi offers help in peace efforts over Ukraine crisis
https://arab.news/5beqn
India’s Modi offers help in peace efforts over Ukraine crisis
- Modi expressed his "deep anguish about the loss of life and property due to the ongoing conflict"
- India along with China and United Arab Emirates abstained from voting for a UN Security Council
‘Keep dreaming’: NATO chief says Europe can’t defend itself without US
BRUSSELS: NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Monday Europe cannot defend itself without the United States, in the face of calls for the continent to stand on its own feet after tensions over Greenland.
US President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory — before backing off after talks with Rutte last week.
The diplomatic crisis sparked gave fresh momentum to those advocating for Europe to take a tougher line against Trump and break its military reliance on Washington.
“If anyone thinks here again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US — keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told lawmakers at the European Parliament.
He said that EU countries would have to double defense spending from the five percent NATO target agreed last year to 10 percent and spend “billions and billions” on building nuclear arms.
“You would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella,” Rutte said. “So hey, good luck.”
The former Dutch prime minister insisted that US commitment to NATO’s Article Five mutual defense clause remained “total,” but that the United States expected European countries to keep spending more on their militaries.
“They need a secure Euro-Atlantic, and they also need a secure Europe. So the US has every interest in NATO,” he said.
The NATO head reiterated his repeated praise for Trump for pressuring reluctant European allies to step up defense spending.
He also appeared to knock back a suggestion floated by the EU’s defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius earlier this month for a possible European defense force that could replace US troops on the continent.
“It will make things more complicated. I think Putin will love it. So think again,” Rutte said.
On Greenland, Rutte said he had agreed with Trump that NATO would “take more responsibility for the defense of the Arctic,” but it was up to Greenlandic and Danish authorities to negotiate over US presence on the island.
“I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said.
Rutte reiterated that he had stressed to Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan after the US leader caused outrage by playing down their contribution.
“For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home,” he said.
“I know that America greatly appreciates all the efforts.”
