Senior diplomats of India and Ukraine are exploring the possibility of a bilateral meetin🦄g between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
If the meeti♏ng takes place, then it will be the first one between the two leaders after the Russian invasion ofꦦ Ukraine in February last year.
Modi left for the Japanes🧔e city this morning to attend three sessions at the G7 summit as part of his 🌱three-nation tour that will also take him to Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Besides attending the summit,ဣ Modi will also hold a series of bilateral meetings with a number of global leaders including Prime Minister of Japan Kishida Fumio.
The people cited above sai𓂃d there is a possibility of a meeting between Modi and Zelenskyy on Saturday ꦗbut there is no finality on it yet.
"Both sides 🔯are engaged in discussions to finalise the proposal," said one of the people.
The Ukrainian president is attending the summit following an invitation by J🍌apan, ♉the current chair of the powerful grouping.
Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minis😼ter Emine Dzhaparova visited India last month, in first high-level trip to India from Ukrain⛄e after the conflict began in the eastern European country.
During her visit, Dzhaparova handed over a letter to Minister of State for External Affairs M✱eenakshi Lekhi. The letter was written to Modi by Zelenskyy.
Since the Ukraine conflict began, Modi spoke to 🌞Russian President Vladimir Putin as🦄 well as Zelenskyy a number of times.
In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4 last year, Modi said there can be "no military solution"🌼; and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.
India has not yet condemned the Russian inva🦹sion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolve𓄧d through diplomacy and dialogue.
