US Vice President JD Vance had proposed that India and Saudi Arabia could contribute troops to a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, a new book has claimed. The proposal was made by the US V-P during a discussion at the White House on Washington’s strategy on the Ukraine war.
The claim was made in the book — ‘Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump’, which has been written by New York Times (NYT) journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.ย
According to the book, the high-level meeting happened on January 30 at the Oval Office of White House, which was attended by President Donald Trump, Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Security Adviser (NSA) Mike Waltz and other officials.
During the meeting, US Army’s Lieutenant General (retired) Keith Kellogg — who was later appointed as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia — proposed the ‘An America First Plan: Trump’s Historic Peace Deal for Russia-Ukraine War’.
As discussions continued, Vance proposed that Indian or Saudi Arabian troops could be deployed in Ukraine as peacemakers. He was against sending North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops to Ukraine because he believed the move could provoke the Russians, as per the book.ย
However, Trump rejected the proposal and told Vance that India would not agree to it. “The Indians wonโt do that. They wonโt pay for something like that,” the book quoted Trump as saying.ย
The book also suggested that Trump said during the meeting that he has a good rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “PM Modi really liked him and wanted to visit, Trump said, but the Indians do not ever pay for anything,” the book said.ย
India’s stance has remained clear on the Ukraine war and New Delhi has repeatedly stated that all hostilities must be resolved via dialogue. PM Modi has also held talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s reiterating India’s stance and stressing that Delhi will always be “on the side of peace”.
“India will always be on the side of peace, placing the values of humanity over everything else,” the prime minister said earlier this week after meeting Zelenskyy on sidelines of the G7 Summit in France.
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