‘Part of culture,’ Jaishankar schools Western media over PM Modi hugging Putin

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Friday (Aug 23) said embracing is a part of India’s culture when asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia last month and his hug with President Vladimir Putin.

PM Modi on Friday visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Following the meeting, Jaishankar addressed the media and shared details of the conversation the two leaders had.

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When he was asked about Modi’s hug with Putin and now with President Zelensky, Jaishankar said, “In our part of the world, when people meet people, they are given to embracing each other, it may not be part of your culture but I can assure you it is part of ours. In fact, today, I think, I saw, Prime Minister (Modi) also embrace President Zelensky.”

The foreign minister added that he had seen PM Modi hugging several world leaders in the past as well and there was nothing unusual about it.

“And I have seen him do it with a number of other leaders in a number of other places. So, I think, we have a slight ... cultural gap here in terms of what these courtesies mean,” Jaishankar added.

PM Modi visited Russia in July and told Putin that a solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and that peace efforts do not succeed in the midst of bombs and bullets. Despite this strong message, the visit was criticised by Western leaders and Zelensky himself.

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Zelensky wrote, referring to a Russian attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv the day Modi arrived in Russia.

(With inputs from agencies)