Peace talks cannot happen without Russia, Ukraine both on board: Jaishankar

Geneva, Sep 12 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said India is among the few countries that have the ability to talk to both Russia and Ukraine to find a solution outside the battlefield but asserted that negotiations cannot happen without the two parties on board.

Jaishankar, who was in conversation with Ambassador Jean-David Levitte at Global Centre for Security Policy, a think tank, here was answering a question about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visits to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin and to Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he reiterated India’s stated position of finding a solution outside the battlefield.

After elaborating on how Modi’s visit took place over the last two months, Jaishankar said, “We're not going to get a military solution; there has to be a diplomatic one, and negotiated one” and added that it is for the parties to decide the terms of negotiation.

In a veiled reference to the West’s unilateral efforts to discuss the end of the Russia-Ukraine war, said, “You know, a negotiation cannot be one party and all its supporters coming together and the other party is not in the room, then it's not a negotiation.” Jaishankar, who reached Geneva after a two-day visit to Germany, said, “The would be a few countries who have the ability to talk in both places, who can, who are not seen as in one country as being in the other party. I think these countries have a possibility today,” he said, giving examples of Saudi Arabia and UAE.

A time has arrived when there should be a realisation that the continuation of Russia-Ukraine conflict is hurting both countries and it should end soon, he said, and mentioned how the Ukraine conflict actually tells how “interdependent and globalised and tightly woven” the world is.

The war had an immediate impact on fuel prices creating a disturbance in the global economy and global finance and had collateral consequences on other societies, he said and pointed out how many of the consequences of this (Russia-Ukraine) conflict were actually felt far away and gave Sri Lanka’s example.

The amount of fuel came down by half because of the cost of fuel and “so, a lot of the crisis in Sri Lanka was actually a secondary or tertiary consequence of what was happening in Ukraine,” he explained.

He also drew attention to the happenings in the Middle East, in Gaza because “it's affecting shipping as the Houthis targeting of shipping has big consequences. It has radicalisation implications.” He also spoke about the consequences for (lack of) energy for 9-10 million people in West Asia and the Gulf put together. “There's less global appetite to go and do somebody else's property. But the fact is that somebody else's problem can come back into your home much faster than you think,” Jaishankar said. PTI

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