India will participate in summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Ukraine: MEA

New Delhi [India], August 4 (ANI): The Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed India’s participation in a summit to be hosted by Saudi Arabia in Jeddah to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plan for peace amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
"India will participate in this event and our participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward," said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
"Yes, India has been invited to a meeting being hosted by Saudi Arabia on Ukraine in Jeddah," Bagchi said while replying to a question at a press briefing of the Ministry of External Affairs.
While he did not specify who will attend the meeting from the Indian side, he also said, “As regards the level of participation, we will let you know.”
Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov as saying: “Russia will keep an eye on this meeting” but would need “to fully understand what goals are being set.”
In regard to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India has always maintained that the conflict must be resolved by dialogue and diplomacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also said, "India is ready to do whatever it can for a peaceful resolution of the conflict."
The Wall Street Journal, on July 29 first reported on the summit citing “diplomats involved in the discussion”, and said the talks would take place on August 5 and 6, in the city of Jeddah, with some 30 countries attending.
WSJ also said that Ukrainian and Western officials are hopeful that the efforts could conclude in a peace summit later this year where global leaders would sign up to shared principles for resolving the war.
For the Jeddah summit, the 30 invitees include Chile, Egypt, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zambia, according to WSJ.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday that officials from several countries would take part in the Saudi Arabian summit but did not say when or in which city the meeting will be held, reported Al Jazeera.
Yermak, writing on Telegram, said discussions will take place on the Ukrainian Peace Formula, which “contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world”.
“We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis because the war is taking place on our land,” Yermak said, Al Jazeera reported. 
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014. The invasion has killed tens of thousands on both sides. Russian forces have been responsible for mass civilian casualties and for torturing captured Ukrainian soldiers. (ANI)