India Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated for a peaceful end to the Ukraine conflict as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan, where the two leaders also dicussed growing ties between the two nations.

Noting that Putin has always kept him updated with details on the Ukraine conflict, Modi said on Monday that India supports all efforts at peace. 

”Any day spent in war pushes humanity backward; one step towards peace brings hope,” he said. “We have to move from endless war to the end of war, which is in humanity’s interest.” 

The conflict is now in its fifth year. At the SCO summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in 2022, Modi had similarly urged a peaceful settlement of the conflict, stating: “Today’s era is not an era of war.” 

Amid rising Western pressure on India and the Global South to isolate Russia, Modi said national interest has always been the main priority for the two countries in their relationship, and “this will remain our guiding principle in the future as well.”

The Russian president, in turn, cited the growing economic and trade cooperation between the countries. Trade turnover rose 2.6% in the first half of this year, Putin noted. The two nations have set a bilateral trade target of $100 billion to be achieved by 2030. 

India is the second biggest buyer of Russian oil as the Middle East conflict has disrupted oil supplies from the Persian Gulf countries.

However, the exchanges are diversifying. Tourist traffic between the two countries was up 16% last year, Putin said.

”Russian-Indian relations continue to strengthen on the basis of the principles of a special and privileged partnership,” Putin said, praising Modi for his “special attention to Russian-Indian relations and the business and friendly relations that have been established between us.”

The focus areas for the India-Russia friendship remain energy, innovation, space, fertilizers, and people-to-people ties, Modi posted on X after the meeting.