NSA Doval holds talks with Russian counterpart amid hopes of Ukraine peace dialogue

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is in Russia to attend a conclave of national security advisors of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) nations, held wide-ranging talks with the Russian NSA Sergei Shoigu in St Petersburg on Wednesday (September 11).

It has been reported that Doval may be carrying a peace plan proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end the two-and-half-year-long war with Ukraine, which Doval will share with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Doval and Shoigu discussed important issues of “mutual interests” amid calls for India’s possible role in finding a solution to the Ukraine conflict. It is understood that Modi’s talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on August 23 figured in the talks.

Modi’s ties with Russia and Ukraine

“Both sides reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and discussed important issues of mutual interest,” the Indian embassy in Russia said on the talks between Doval and Shoigu. Doval’s visit to Russia comes two-and-a-half weeks after Modi paid a high-profile trip to Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

In his talks with Zelenskyy, Modi said 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. The prime minister said India was on the side of peace since the beginning of the conflict and he would even like to contribute personally for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Modi’s nearly nine-hour visit to Ukraine, the first by an Indian prime minister since its independence in 1991, came six weeks after he held summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

There will be some negotiation: EAM

Also, on Wednesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while speaking at the Annual Ambassadors’ Conference of the German Foreign Office in Berlin, said Russia and Ukraine must resolve their conflict by negotiating off the battlefield. He added that India is willing to advise them.

“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,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying.

This came a day after Jaishankar held a “useful conversation” with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was attending the India-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers’ meeting.

Calls for India’s role as mediator

In the last few days, there has been calls for India’s potential role in pushing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine as New Delhi has good relations with both the nations. On Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni following her talks with Zelenskyy said India and China can play a role in finding a solution to the dragging conflict.

Russian President Putin, speaking at a panel discussion at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok last Thursday, named India, Brazil, and China as possible intermediaries that could play a role in resolving the conflict.

“First of all, it is the Chinese People’s Republic, Brazil and India — I am in contact with my partners and I have no doubt that the leaders of these countries — and we have relations of trust and confidence with one another — will be really interested and provide a helping hand,” he said.

His remarks came in response to a question on possible countries that can act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

Kremlin’s call

India has been maintaining that the conflict in Ukraine must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.

Last week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also told the daily Izvestia that India could help establish a dialogue on Ukraine.

Mentioning the “highly constructive, even friendly relations” that Modi shares with Putin, he said the former could “lead the line on getting first-hand information from the participants in this conflict”, as Modi “freely communicates with Putin, Zelensky and the Americans”.

(With agency inputs)