G20 Summit: With India not inviting Zelenskyy, Macron becomes third leader to dial Ukrainian President

The Modi government, resisting pressure from the West, did not include the president of Ukraine in the list of “special invitees”, ostensibly to avoid annoying Russia.

Like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, President Emmanuel Macron of France too has spoken to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine over the phone - days before travelling to New Delhi to attend the G20 summit, which has come under the long shadow of Russia’s military aggression against the East European nation.

Zelenskyy posted on a social media platform that he and Macron had a phone call on Sunday and discussed France's military support for Ukraine. Macron also promised Zelenskyy that France would play an active role in promoting the peace formula proposed by Ukraine to end Russia's war.

Macron will travel to New Delhi this week to attend the G20 summit, which will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is the third G20 leader to dial Zelenskyy just before attending the summit of the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently had phone calls with the president of Ukraine.

Apart from the heads of states and heads of governments of the 19 G20 nations and the European Union, India has also invited the leaders of nine other nations to the summit.

The Modi government, however, resisted pressure from the West and did not include the president of Ukraine in the list of “special invitees”, ostensibly to avoid annoying Russia, which shares a "special and privileged strategic partnership” with India.

Zelenskyy had addressed the G20 leaders through video-link during the intergovernmental forum’s 17^th summit, which had been held at Bali in Indonesia in November of 2022. He had presented his peace formula during his address to the summit, which Russian President Vladimir Putin had not attended.

Putin will also not attend the 18^th G20 summit, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

The phone calls the G7 leaders are having with Zelenskyy are apparently intended to signal their support to Ukraine.

New Delhi has been trying to push the Russia-Ukraine war down on the agenda to save the summit from being overshadowed by the conflict.

But the United States has made it clear that President Joe Biden will discuss with his counterparts ways to mitigate the social and economic impacts of “Putin’s war in Ukraine”. Trudeau was more candid in telling Zelenskyy that he was disappointed that India had not invited the latter to attend the summit.