India can play a role in finding solution to Ukraine conflict: Italian PM Meloni

Giorgia Meloni. Photo/AFP

India and China can play a role in finding a solution to the dragging conflict in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Italian prime minister's comments at northern Italy's Cernobbio city came two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin named India, Brazil and China as possible intermediaries that could play a role in resolving the conflict.

"China and India have a role to play in resolving the conflict," Meloni was quoted as saying in Italian media. "What must not happen is to think that the conflict can be resolved by abandoning Ukraine to its fate," she said. "The decision to support Kyiv is in line with Italy's national interest and will never change," Meloni said, reaffirming her government's full support for Ukraine.

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On Thursday, Putin, speaking at a panel discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, said that he was in touch with India, Brazil and China on the Ukraine conflict. "First of all, it is Chinese People's Republic, Brazil and India -- I am in contact with my partners and I have no doubt that the leaders of these countries -- and we have relations of trust and confidence with one another -- will be really interested and provide a helping hand," he said.

His remarks came in response to a question on possible countries that can act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kyiv last month during which he conveyed to Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an "active role" to restore peace in the region.

The prime minister said India was on the side of peace since the beginning of the conflict and he would even like to contribute personally for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. Modi's nearly nine-hour visit to Ukraine on August 23, the first by an Indian prime minister since its independence in 1991, came six weeks after he held summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

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