Jaishankar in Moscow calls for ‘return to dialogue’ on Ukraine conflict

India and Russia will discuss the overall global situation amid the war in Ukraine as well as specific regional concerns, the government said in a statement today as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow today.

“India strongly reiterates the return to dialogue,” Jaishankar said on the Ukraine-Russia war.

The external affairs minister arrived in Moscow on Monday evening.

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Ukraine conflict impact

Jaishankar and Lavrov have already met four times after the Ukraine conflict began in February.

“Where the international situation is concerned, the last few years of the Covid pandemic, financial pressures and trade difficulties; these have taken a toll on the global economy. We are now seeing the consequences of the Ukraine conflict on top of that,” Jaishankar said.

“There are also the more perennial issues of terrorism and climate change, both of which have a disruptive impact on progress and prosperity. Our talks will address the overall global situation as well as specific regional concerns,” he said.

“India and Russia engage each other in an increasingly multi-polar and re-balanced world. We do so as two polities who have had an exceptionally steady and time-tested relationship,” Jaishankar said.

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The talks between Jaishankar and Lavrov are expected to cover a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests.

Modi-Putin meetings

Since the Ukraine conflict began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to Russian President Putin as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a number of times.

In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4, Modi said there can be “no military solution” and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.

At a bilateral meeting with Putin in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on September 16, Modi told him that “today’s era is not of war”. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

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India has also been buying oil from Russia amid the war in Ukraine, much to the chagrin of the West, which has severed trade ties with Russia.