Not For Me To Tell India What Position To Take On Ukraine War: UK PM Rishi Sunak
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday said that India respects the rule of law and it was not his position to advise it on what position to take on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
"Well, it's not for me to tell India what positions to take on international issues. But I know India rightly cares about the international rule of law, the UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity. I think those are things that are universal values that we all share. Those are things that I believe and India I know believes in those things too" Sunak said.
India's position has been that Russia needs to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy for an early resolution of the conflict.
The British Prime Minister arrived in New Delhi today for the two-day G20 Summit, which begins here on Saturday. In an interview with ANI, the UK Prime Minister said that he was looking to highlight the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the summit.
"When it comes to Ukraine and Russia in conflict one thing I will be doing is highlighting the devastating impact that Russia's illegal invasion is having on millions of people around the world, particularly on food prices. Russia recently pulled out of a grain deal that was shipping grain from Ukraine to many poor countries around the world and now you've seen food prices have gone up. That is causing suffering for millions of people, Sunak said.
"It's not right, and one of the things I'll be doing is making people aware of that impact of Russia's illegal war" the UK Prime Minister said.
Russia had this July said that it was terminating its participation in a deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain. The agreement was brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022 and permitted Ukrainian ships to get around a Russian blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports and safely navigate the waterway to Turkey's Bosphorus Strait in order to access international markets.
Meanwhile, Russia is being represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who will be attending the summit on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When asked about the Russia-Ukraine conflict casting a possible shadow on the outcome of the meeting of the Group of 20 Developed Economies, the UK Prime Minister Sunak said that he believed that the G20 under India's presidency would make "good progress."
"I think there will be many things that we will be discussing here at the G20 under India's leadership, and I am confident that we will make very good progress on a range of different issues," Sunak said.
"I think G-20 has been a huge success for India. India is the right country at the right time to be hosting this and I feel we're going to have a very good couple of days of deliberations and decisions made," said the UK Prime Minister. (ANI)
