Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “today’s era is not of war” do not reflect a change in India’s position on the conflict, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

Clarifying this position, he also said late Wednesday in the US capital that India has all along called for early cessation of hostilities between the two countries.

Responding to a question on Russia's referendum in areas of Ukraine that it has occupied, Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters in Washington that India will reflect its views on the issue at the United Nations (UN) in New York.

Making these assertions on the last day of his tour to the US, the Minister said, “I think it is an issue that will be coming up for consideration, my understanding, is in the United Nations. So, I would urge you to wait and see what our ambassador there has to say,” he said. About the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Putin in Samarkand on September 16, Jaishankar said this was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict.

“So, it was very natural when they have a face-to-face meeting that, you know, will begin the meeting with the press there, you make the press remarks, and we'll look at the video of that particular occasion, that's exactly what happened,” he said.

“Now, it's not as if we have not said that before. We have been expressing our concern about the conflict, about the urgency for early cessation of hostilities, about the need for dialogue and diplomacy.

So there has been a steady refrain. It was entirely natural that if the Prime Minister of India and the President of Russia were meeting at this juncture that these subjects would be addressed. And I think that's what the Prime Minister did,” he said. Jaishankar said that Modi's comments to Putin in Samarkand were not a change in India's position on Ukraine.  “It was an obvious subject to come up at the meeting. The position that the Prime Minister took was consistent with the position that we have been taking earlier.

Now, possibly it was received and perceived in a way because it was a face-to-face meeting, whereas earlier on these were reports of conversations that had taken place,” Jaishankar said.

“So, in terms of the impact that they made on the global media, I think it's understandable that a physical meeting made a stronger impact than the sort of second-hand report in a way,” he said.