Days after PM Narendra Modi spoke to him and “exchanged perspectives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict” and “insights from the visit to Ukraine”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that China, India and Brazil could act as mediators in potential peace talks.
India, China & Brazil In Putin’s List of Potential Mediators
Days after PM Narendra Modi spoke to him and “exchanged perspectives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict” and “insights from the visit to Ukraine”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that China, India and Brazil could act as mediators in potential peace talks. Russian state-owned TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying, “We respect our friends and partners who, I believe, sincerely seek to resolve all issues surrounding this conflict, primarily China, Brazil and India. I constantly keep in touch with our colleagues on this issue.”
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, Putin said a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul in the first weeks of the war, and which was never implemented, could serve as the basis for talks, the Reuters news agency reported. Putin’s framing of the remarks that BRICS leaders can play a role comes a month before Russia is scheduled to host the BRICS leaders’ summit in Kazan from October 22-24. Prime Minister Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to attend the summit.
Putin also made it clear that Turkey-mediated talks can be the basis for talks, and not the Swiss-led peace summit which was not attended by Russia. India refused to sign the joint communique at the Swiss summit, citing Moscow’s absence at the table.
Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia daily that India could help in establishing a dialogue on Ukraine. The Kremlin said Putin gave a “fundamental assessment of the destructive line of the Kyiv authorities and their Western patrons, outlining key Russian approaches to ways to resolve the conflict”.
