UN Chief Guterres Says He Fully Supports PM Modi's 'Not An Era Of War' Remark To Russian President Putin

United Nations, Oct 18 (PTI) UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that he fully supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark to Russian President Vladimir Putin that this is 'not an era of war', emphasising that all efforts towards creating conditions for a solution to the Ukraine conflict under the UN Charter and international law will be 'very much welcomed.'

Russian President Putin ordered a 'special military operation' against Ukraine on February 24. The raging conflict has further heightened economic stresses, especially on food and energy.

Early this month, Modi had a telephonic conversation with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which he had “expressed his firm conviction that there can be no military solution to the conflict and conveyed India’s readiness to contribute to any peace efforts.”

He referred to the efforts for the release of civilians from Azovstal, agreement in relation to the Black Sea initiative for exports of Ukrainian food, as well as the Memoranda of Understanding with Russia in 'which we are doing everything to make sure that Russian food and fertilizers have unrestricted access to world markets and that the collateral damage of sanctions, even if the sanctions do not apply to food and fertilizers, is entirely removed.”

He said “we have been working very hard” with the US, European Union, UK and with others and “I believe that we will achieve important results on that and we are open to go on looking for the areas in which we can be useful and hoping that one day we will be able to contribute to peace in line with the values of the Charter that we are supposed to uphold.”

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without any modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)