Let Russia, Ukraine talk; India can help: EAM
BERLIN: Underlining that the Ukraine conflict cannot be resolved on the battlefield, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine have to negotiate, and if they want advice, India is always willing to give.
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.
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.