INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that now was "not a time for war" on Friday on the sidelines of a
regional summit.New Delhi and Moscow have longstanding ties dating back to the Cold War, and Russia remains by far India's biggest arms
supplier.But in their first face-to-face meeting since Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine in February, Modi told Putin: "Excellency, I know
today's time is not a time for war."India has shied away from explicitly condemning Russia for the invasion, which sent the price of oil and
other commodities soaring.But he stressed the importance of "democracy and diplomacy and dialogue" in the meeting on the sidelines of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, footage showed on Indian public service broadcaster
Doordashan.They would discuss "how to move forward on the path of peace," Modi added.The SCO summit comes as Russian forces face major
battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, and represented an opportunity for Putin to show his country had not been fully isolated despite Western
efforts."I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns..
We will do our best to end this as soon as possible," Putin told Modi.But he added that Ukraine's leadership had rejected negotiations "and
stated that it wants to achieve its goals by military means, on the battlefield."On Thursday, Putin met with his Chinese counterpart Xi
Jinping and acknowledged that his key ally Beijing also had "concerns" over the conflict.Balancing actNew Delhi has long walked a tightrope
urged a cessation of hostilities but repeatedly brushed off calls from Washington to condemn Russia, despite India pursuing greater security
ties with the United States.Unusually, India is a member of both the SCO and the so-called Quad, a strategic bloc grouping it, the United
States, Japan and Australia, and aimed at providing a more substantive counterweight to China's rising military and economic power.Former
Indian ambassador to Russia Pankaj Saran described Modi's comments as "quite frank" in saying that the Ukraine crisis "had caught the
attention of the whole world and created problems for the developing world"."This was a fairly strong message to Russia," he told Doordashan
"As a friend, his recommendation and India's position is that this needs to be resolved only through dialogue and diplomacy."Putin visited
New Delhi late last year, bear-hugging Modi and hailing India as a "great power" as the two men bolstered military and energy ties.India is
the world's second-largest importer of arms after Saudi Arabia and according to the Business Standard, between 2016-20, 49.4% of its
purchases were from Russia.The Asian giant of 1.4 billion people is also a major consumer of Russian oil, ramping up discounted purchases in
the wake of a Western embargo.
