India’s Former Foreign Secretary & Ambassador To Russia Clarified Modi’s SCO Remarks To Putin

By authoritatively clarifying everything from his position as a diplomat, expert, insider, and policy influencer, Mr. Sibal set the record straight about Prime Minister Modi’s intent. There’s no longer any excuse for anyone to claim that they lack the context and facts required to understand what the Indian leader meant. Those who keep pushing false narratives aren’t uninformed, but deliberately deceitful.

Kanwal Sibal, who previously served as Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Russia among his other prestigious appointments, is one of India’s foremost experts on bilateral relations with Russia. He’s considered a guru by many observers when it comes to clarifying various aspects in their ties. Russian-Indian relations have once again become the focus of global attention after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks to President Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of last week’s SCO Summit in Samarkand. The Indian leader told his Russian counterpart that “I know that now is not an age of wars”, which prompted Western observers to spin this as some sort of “condemnation”. It’s therefore very timely that Mr. Sibal just published a piece clarifying the Prime Minister’s intentions.

Titled “View: PM Modi's Samarkand remarks were carefully crafted” and published by The Economic Times, this distinguished diplomat added much-needed context to his leader’s remarks by reminding everyone of the crucial parts that were conspicuously omitted from Mainstream Media (MSM) reporting. He emphasized that Prime Minister Modi’s preceding words about the “disruption of global supply chains causing an unprecedented energy and food crisis” formed the basis upon which he encouraged all parties in every conflict across the world (having never mentioned the Ukrainian Conflict specifically) to prioritize political solutions to their disputes. Mr. Sibal also referenced his leader’s speech at the SCO that proposed improving regional connectivity and supply chains.

Anyone can review the transcript of Prime Minister Modi’s remarks to President Putin from the official Kremlin website and his SCO speech from his own official website to confirm the veracity of the facts and the sequence of events that Mr. Sibal shared in his timely article. Once the reader is aware of these, it becomes obvious that the MSM purposely sought to manipulate their audience about what just happened. This was predictable, so much so that I even published a pre-bunking piece the same day as his objectively non-scandalous remarks to prepare everyone for the artificially manufactured information warfare narrative that was bound to be unleashed in twisting the truth about Russian-Indian relations as punishment for Delhi’s policy of principled neutrality towards the Ukrainian Conflict.

As Mr. Sibal concluded, “These general remarks made to convey that India, while unwilling to condemn Russia, was active in seeking an end to the conflict were by no means a ‘rebuke’ to Putin, as mischievously propagated by western commentary. Putin’s own preceding opening remarks that he knew Modi’s ‘position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns that you constantly express’ affirms this.” By authoritatively clarifying everything from his position as a diplomat, expert, insider, and policy influencer, Mr. Sibal set the record straight about Prime Minister Modi’s intent. There’s no longer any excuse for anyone to claim that they lack the context and facts required to understand what the Indian leader meant. Those who keep pushing false narratives aren’t uninformed, but deliberately deceitful.