India’s Participation in Ukraine Peace Conference: A Decision Pending

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been personally invited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend the two-day Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland this weekend, but India has not yet decided who would represent Delhi.

"India would take part in the peace conference to the proper extent. Regarding who would represent India at the first summit, it is presently being considered inside the system, and we will be pleased to share as soon as we make a choice. Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra responded to queries on this matter.

Prior to the conference, Russia made it clear that it saw the West and Ukraine's involvement in this process as an effort to bring "new members into the anti-Russian camp."

According to information released by the Associated Press on Monday from Obburgen, Switzerland, some 90 countries and organizations have confirmed their attendance at the summit.

Vice-President Kamala Harris will lead the US delegation, and neither China nor Russia will be present. Modi has been invited to attend the outreach session of the G-7 meeting this week in Italy, but it is unclear if he will also be visiting Switzerland.

When asked if Russia's stance on the peace conference influences India's choice about how much to participate, Kwatra resisted being forced to provide a particular response, insisting instead that "many variables go into consideration while formulating a decision on this." As soon as the details of our involvement in this conference are finalized, we will notify you.

Zelensky has personally invited Modi to the summit twice in the last several months. "We believe that India should be present at the first peace summit, which is being organized in Switzerland," Zelensky stated in a thorough post on X following a phone call with Modi in March.

When the president of Ukraine contacted Modi last week to congratulate him on his election, he repeated the same message. "We talked about the next international peace conference. We depend on the highest degree of cooperation from India, Zelensky said on X.

The meeting is a follow-up to the Peace Formula, which Zelensky presented as a means of resolving the issue with Russia during the G20 summit in Indonesia in 2022. Vikram Misri, the deputy national security adviser for India, has participated in at least two sessions using the Copenhagen format to advance Zelensky's idea of a peace conference to resolve the now third-year-old Russia-Ukraine war.

This week, Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, called the conference "empty and worthless."

He continued by saying that Zelenskky had issued an order in September 2022 prohibiting any Ukrainian official from speaking with the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian foreign ministry formally declared at the beginning of May 2024 that Russia is not recognized by Ukraine as a duly elected head of state.