‘PM Modi was right when he said…’: Macron’s message to Russia on Ukraine war

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was right when he said the time is not for war, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday at the ongoing session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

“Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India was right when he said the time is not for war. It is not for revenge against the West, or for opposing the West against the east. It is the time for a collective time for our sovereign equal states. To cope together with challenges we face,” he said.

Macron’s statement was in reference to PM Modi’s nudge to Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit last week, to end the Ukraine invasion and return to the path of peace and dialogue.

PM Modi called for early cessation of hostilities, stressing that the Russian president would have to consider the problems of food and energy security being faced by developing countries in the wake of the conflict.

“Today’s era is not of war and I have spoken to you about it on the call. Today we will get the opportunity to talk about how we can progress on the path of peace. India and Russia have stayed together with each other for several decades,” PM Modi said.

“We spoke several times on the phone about India-Russia bilateral relations and various issues. We should find ways to address the problems of food, fuel security and fertilizers. I want to thank Russia and Ukraine for helping us to evacuate our students from Ukraine,” he added.

This was the first time Modi publicly called on Putin to end the war. Putin said that he knew about India’s position on the Ukraine conflict and added, “We want all of this to end as soon as possible. But… the leadership of Ukraine has… refused to engage in the negotiating process. They said that they want to achieve their objectives… on the battlefield militarily.”

Hoping to use the ongoing session of the UN General Assembly to convince neutral states to apply more pressure on Moscow, Macron, in his 30-minute long speech, called on countries to no longer sit on the fence. He said, “those who remain silent today…are serving the cause of a new imperialism, a contemporary cynicism that is destroying the world order.”