Russia’s Sergey Lavrov set to meet India’s Narendra Modi in New Delhi
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — who arrived in New Delhi on Thursday — is set to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
A senior Indian government official familiar with preparations for the talks said Modi will reiterate and stress the need for a cessation of hostilities and sovereignty as inviolable.
Lavrov will also meet Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.
View from the US: Ahead of Lavrov’s visit to India, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that every country has its own relationship with Russia.
The US was not seeking to change that, but was looking for countries to speak “loudly against (Russia’s) unjustified, unprovoked, premeditated aggression, calling for an end to the violence, using the leverage that countries, including India, have to those ends,” Price said.
“There are countries that by dent of their long-standing relationships with the Russian Federation are going to have in some ways even more leverage than countries closer to us will.”
UK Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss also met with Jaishankar on Thursday, repeatedly pointing out how countries across the world have stepped up in denouncing Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Some context: India has declined to take a stance on the conflict in Ukraine and has abstained from multiple United Nations votes. India has welcomed several foreign leaders to the country this week with various discussions on Ukraine.
