Ahead of PM's trip to Kazan, India calls for talks on West Asia crisis

NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to depart for Kazan for the Brics summit , the government reiterated its position that it’s important to return to dialogue and diplomacy to ensure the Gaza conflict doesn’t spread to the wider West Asia region.

The situation in Gaza and Iran-Israel tensions are likely to dominate the international agenda of the summit with both Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian and Palestine’s leader Mahmoud Abbas attending the event.

Modi is likely to have a bilateral meeting with the Iranian President on Tuesday. He will begin his official engagements in Kazan with a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin .

“Our stance on West Asia has been consistent and firm over a long period of time. We have explicitly condemned acts of terrorism and at the same time, as the conflict has grown and, in a sense, expanded, we have called for a cease-fire, and release of hostages,” said foreign secretary Vikram Misri .

“Also for guarding against an expansion of the conflict that would pull more and more actors and make the issue more complicated to resolve, it is important to get back to dialogue and diplomacy,” he added.