Candid View : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar On The Russia, Ukraine, Conflict And The Road Ahead

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Underlining that the Ukraine conflict cannot be resolved on the battlefield, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Russia and Ukraine have to negotiate, and if they want advice, India is always willing to give.

According to PTI report, Jaishankar made the comments while responding to questions at the Annual Ambassadors’ Conference of the German Foreign Office in Berlin, a day after he held a “useful conversation” with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the margins of the India-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers’ meeting in the Saudi capital.

“We don’t think this conflict is going to be resolved on the battlefield. At some stage, there’s going to be some negotiation. When there is a negotiation, the main parties – Russia and Ukraine – have to be at that negotiation,” he said.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to Russia and Ukraine, he said that the Indian leader has said in Moscow and Kyiv that this is not an era of war.

“We don’t think you’re going to get a solution out of the battlefield. We think you’ve got to negotiate… If you want advice, we are always willing to give it…,” he added.

Noting that countries have differences and neighbours have differences, Jaishankar said that conflicts are not a good way of resolving differences.

In his interaction, Jaishankar also said that the Quad has been a successful experiment.

India is a member of QUAD – a four-member strategic security dialogue that also includes the US, Japan and Australia. China regards Quad as an alliance, aimed at containing its rise and is bitterly critical of the grouping.

“We have revived the Quad. It is a major diplomatic platform and India is committed to it,” he said.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin named India among the three countries he is constantly in touch over the Ukraine conflict and said they are sincerely making efforts to resolve it.

Speaking at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, Putin said, “If there is a desire of Ukraine to carry on with the negotiations, I can do that.”

His remarks came within two weeks after Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit to Ukraine, where he held talks with President President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We respect our friends and partners, who, I believe, sincerely seek to resolve all issues surrounding this conflict, primarily China, Brazil and India. I constantly keep in touch with our colleagues on this issue,” Putin was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week told the Izvestia daily that India could help in establishing a dialogue on Ukraine.

Underlining the existing “highly constructive, even friendly relations” between Modi and Putin, he said the Indian Prime Minister can “lead the line on getting first-hand information from the participants in this conflict,” as he “freely communicates with Putin, with Zelenskyy, and with the Americans.”

“This gives a great opportunity for India to throw its weight in world affairs, to use its influence that would drive the Americans and Ukrainians towards using a greater political will and entering the peaceful settlement track,” Peskov said.

He, however, said there are “no specific plans” for Modi to mediate on the issue.

“At this time they can hardly exist, as we do not see any preconditions for talks for now,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Modi on August 23 visited Ukraine where he conveyed to President Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an “active role” to restore peace in the region.

In his interaction, Jaishankar underlined that India has changed enormously in the last decade and added that it is today a nearly 4 trillion dollar economy that has 8% growth prospects for decades further to come.

“Its embrace of digital technologies is creating a public infrastructure on a massive scale,” he said, adding that this is now an India of Moon landing and a Mars mission, a prolific manufacturer of vaccines and medicines, increasingly important to the global semiconductor industry and to contract engineering.