New Delhi: Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi help defuse a nuclear tension between Russia and Ukraine as claimed by an American news report?
Ukraine Embassy sources told ThePrint that public statements by Modi and other world leaders did help, whereas Russian officials dismissed the report as “American propaganda”.
The development came even as Indian officials remained tight-lipped over a CNN report — citing two high-ranking officials in the Biden administration — that claimed the US was worried about Russia using a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine in late 2022 and had reached out to Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The outreach and public statements from the Chinese president and the Indian prime minister helped “avert” a crisis, the report added.
A look at his itinerary in 2022 shows that Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin five times over the phone.
The two also met during a bilateral meeting in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in September 2022 during which Modi had said – “Today is not an era of war” — a statement that was welcomed by Western countries like the US and Germany.
A source in the Ukraine embassy told ThePrint that all nuclear powers, including India, publicly expressed that the use of nuclear weapons are unacceptable and would have far-reaching consequences.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson in the Russian Embassy in India dismissed the CNN report as “American propaganda”, but did not rule out the possibility of a nuclear attack should Kyiv receive nuclear weapons from the West.
“We see Ukrainians as part of the Soviet Union. Why would we launch a nuclear strike against our brothers? However, this could not be ruled out if a situation arises in which the Ukrainians were supplied nuclear weapons from the West,” the diplomat added.
In October 2022, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Vassily Nebenzia wrote to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning that Ukraine is planning a “dirty bomb” attack which Moscow would regard as an “act of nuclear terrorism”.
Indian officials, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped over the CNN report, but said that New Delhi’s stance on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine have been made abundantly clear in official statements and remarks by the prime minister.
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Modi-Putin interactions in 2022
According to the CNN report, from late summer to fall 2022, the US National Security Council were discussing contingency plans in the event of Russia launching a nuclear weapon against Ukraine.
In 2022, Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin five times over the phone – on 24 February, 2 March, 7 March, 1 July and 16 December — as compared to twice in 2023.
The first two calls in 2022 mainly concerned the evacuation of Indian students from conflict-hit areas. In the third call, Modi suggested a direct conversation between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and in the following telephonic conversation in July, he reiterated the need for “dialogue and diplomacy”.
During their only face-to-face meeting in September 2022 at the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan, Modi told Putin this was “not an era of war” — viewed as New Delhi’s sharpest response to Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Days later after this, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said his country “very much welcomed” Modi’s statement.
Modi also talked about the adverse impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on global supply chains, while delivering a virtual address at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia on 7 September 2022.
“The Ukraine conflict and the Covid pandemic have had a major impact on global supply chains. Shortages of foodgrains, fertilisers, and fuels are a major concern for developing countries. Since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, we have stressed the need to take the path of diplomacy and dialogue. We support all peaceful efforts to end this conflict,” he said.
A senior US official, quoted by the CNN report, had said “the concern from key countries for Russia and the Global South, was also a helpful, persuasive factor”.
“I think the fact that we know China weighed in, India weighed in, others weighed in, may have had some effect on their thinking…I can’t demonstrate this positively, but I think that’s our assessment,” the second official told CNN.
In mid-2023, the Financial Times reported that Xi personally warned Putin against nuclear attack on Ukraine, during the Chinese president’s state visit to Moscow in March. The Kremlin later denied the report.
That said, while speaking at the Munich Security Conference last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated: “After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, President Xi Jinping further pointed out that nuclear weapons must not be used, and nuclear wars must not be fought.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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