New Delhi, June 10 (IANS) Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday underlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment towards the safety and welfare of Indian nationals living abroad.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, Puri recalled that PM Modi is the only world leader who decided to bring back Indian students who were stranded in Ukraine when the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv broke out in 2022 and assured that the Indian government will make similar efforts if the need arises in the future.

He mentioned that the Indian government had also repatriated Indian students who had passports of other nations, like the US, during the conflict in Ukraine.

When asked about the Government of India’s advisory urging Indian nationals in Iran to leave the country immediately, Hardeep Singh Puri said, “I don’t want to speculate about how long this war will continue, especially since I am speaking here as a Union Minister in the Central Government. But I can share my experience. Whenever there has been any global crisis after 2014 — for example, when the Russia-Ukraine war started in February 2022 — our 26,000-30,000 students were studying in Ukraine. Due to the war and bombings, their hostels were damaged. Modi ji is the only leader in the world who said that we will bring our children back from there.”

“We were absolutely clear that if you are stranded, we will repatriate our citizens. Even American citizens, Indian origin children whose passports were American, we brought them too. So these flights were organised. A film has also been made on that. But, apart from that, when there was civil strife in Sudan, people were also brought from there. I hope that such a situation should not arise again. But, if need arises, I am sure that Modi Ji’s decision, going by experience, he will have feelings and commitment towards the Indian origin communities and Indian nationals,” he added.

India has reiterated its travel advisory for Iran amid fresh escalation in the region, urging its nationals to avoid travelling to it and those there to leave the country by all available means.

Notably, the Government of India, under PM Modi’s leadership, has carried out several evacuation and repatriation operations, safely bringing back Indian citizens from conflict zones, natural disasters and health emergencies. The evacuation operations undertaken by the government include Operation Raahat, Operation Devi Shakti and Operation Ganga.

–IANS

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