Modi Urges Putin to End Ukraine War at SCO Summit
The Indian prime minister made a fresh peace appeal in Bishkek as SCO leaders signed a joint declaration condemning terrorism and double standards.
Peace Appeal to Moscow
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end Russia's war against Ukraine, speaking on Monday. "Every day spent in war pushes humanity backwards, and every step taken towards peace fills humanity with new hope and enthusiasm," Modi said, as reported by BBC News Hindi.
BBC News Hindi notes that Modi has made similar appeals to Putin repeatedly since Russia's 2022 attack on Ukraine, including a public remark at a regional summit that year that "this is not an era of war". The broadcaster's correspondents in Delhi and Moscow assessed that the comments are not surprising and do not signal any strategic shift in Indian foreign policy.
India's economy depends heavily on discounted Russian oil, according to the same report. Russia still supplies roughly 40 percent of India's defence imports and remains a reliable energy supplier. India is a founding member of BRICS alongside Russia and China and belongs to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with both, while also sitting in the Quad grouping with Australia, Japan and the United States, an arrangement BBC News Hindi says Russia is unhappy about.
The Bishkek Declaration
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional security bloc, held its heads of state summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Livehindustan.com reports that member states on Tuesday called the use of "double standards" in fighting terrorism "unacceptable" and signed a joint statement known as the Bishkek Declaration.
Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin and other leaders signed the text, which stressed preventing the use of the internet for terrorist, separatist and extremist purposes. India's foreign ministry highlighted 13 decisions from the summit, including approval of rules for a universal centre to counter security challenges and threats to member states.
Modi told the grouping, in the presence of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Xi and others, that it should confront countries that use terrorism as "state policy". The SCO's members are Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The next heads of state council meeting is set for Pakistan in 2027.
Family Photo Dispute
AajTak reports that Modi shook hands with Putin and Xi together at the summit and later shared the full SCO family photograph showing all the leaders. The Pakistani prime minister's office posted a cropped version of the same photo on its X account.
In the cropped image, according to AajTak, Xi, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Putin, Sharif, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev are visible, while Modi and four other leaders are not. Social media users mocked the crop, one posting the full picture in the comments.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko used his summit speech to name three powerful countries, livehindustan.com reports. "China, Russia and India are economically powerful nuclear countries," he said. The United States was not on his list.
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