PM again chairs high-level meet with focus on evacuation ops
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called an urgent meeting to discuss the evacuation of Indian citizens, many of them students, from the war-torn country.
New Delhi: Soon after the foreign ministry confirmed the death of medical student Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagouda (21) in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called an urgent meeting to discuss the evacuation of Indian citizens, many of them students, from the war-torn country.
Visuals of the meeting attended by foreign minister S Jaishankar and national security advisor Ajit Doval showed foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla giving a presentation on evacuation efforts. The Prime Minister’s office said Modi had spoken to the family of the deceased student in Karnataka.
New Delhi: Soon after the foreign ministry confirmed the death of medical student Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagouda (21) in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called an urgent meeting to discuss the evacuation of Indian citizens, many of them students, from the war-torn country.
Visuals of the meeting attended by foreign minister S Jaishankar and national security advisor Ajit Doval showed foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla giving a presentation on evacuation efforts. The Prime Minister’s office said Modi had spoken to the family of the deceased student in Karnataka.
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Earlier in the day, the government had responded to the worsening situation in Ukraine by stepping up the evacuation of Indian nationals, whose SOS messages flooded social media, asking for help in getting out of the country under attack by Russia.
The government has asked the Indian Air Force to send C-17 transport aircraft to help in evacuating more than 15,000 Indian citizens still stuck in Ukraine, PMO officials said.
The decision came soon after a one-on-one meeting between President Ram Nath Kovind and the Prime Minister.
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Kovind cancelled his 10-day, three-nation tour to Serbia, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which was scheduled to begin on March 2. A Rashtrapati Bhawan official confirmed the cancellation. It would have been the President’s second international trip after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The previous tour was a three-day state visit to Bangladesh in December last year.
“EAM (external affairs minister) Dr S Jaishankar last night apprised President Ram Nath Kovind of the progress of #OperationGanga for the evacuation of Indian nationals including students from Ukraine,” President Kovind’s office tweeted. “Later the President called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and lauded the government’s efforts.’’
