Rome/New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has reiterated India’s stand of diplomacy and dialogue to find a way of ending the Ukraine conflict, and added that India is trying to do that by talking to both Kyiv and Moscow.
In an interview to Italian daily, Corriere Della Sera, EAM said the path to ending the conflict is to engage both the participants.
“So you have to talk to Moscow and you have to talk to Kyiv. And that’s what we are trying to do.”
He pointed out that it’s nearly three years since the Ukraine conflict began, and added: “You’re not going to get a solution from the battlefield, right? We have to negotiate. At some stage, people will come to the table. The sooner they do it, the better, because the rest of the world is affected. It’s not just that Europe is taking the brunt of this conflict. Everybody else’s life is also impacted by what is happening. So do understand there is a big feeling across very large parts of the world. More effort needs to be done to actually get the participants back to the negotiation.”
To a question on whether he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin in actuality wants to control the government in Kyiv through a puppet regime, or rewrite the European order, EAM said: “Look, when you do diplomacy, it cannot be a hypothetical exercise on what another person could want. You know it only when you test it.
“We are not offering a magic solution. We are only making the point today that after more two and a half years of fighting and seeing that we’re not going to get a solution from the battlefield, it’s common sense that some country or some leader or some set of people make an effort, talk to the two sides, try to find some common element.”
He said that this is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to do in the last few months. “He met Zelenski in Puglia in June. Then he met Putin in Moscow in July. Then we went to Kyiv in August. Then he met Zelenski again in September. And we just met Putin in October.”
Asked what he thought of the situation, EAM said:
“We will know what Russia wants or Ukraine wants only when they get down to the negotiation. We have today two major conflicts taking place simultaneously. This is putting the entire international system under great stress. And we cannot be just spectators and say, well, that’s the way it is.
“It may or may not work. We will not know until we try. But we do believe that on both these conflicts, in Ukraine and in the Middle East, countries need to take initiatives, make efforts, however difficult it looks, to try and find some common ground, something better than what we have today.”
To a question on India “taking advantage” of the Ukraine conflict by purchasing below market price oil from Russia and “thereby financing this war of aggression”, the EAM said: “This part of the world has to understand that every part of the world has its interests. The priorities of Europe will naturally differ from the ones of countries in Asia or Africa or Latin America. If everything is a matter of such a deep principle, then Europe itself should have cut off all its business with Russia, but it doesn’t do that. It’s been very selective and paced its disengagement very, very carefully.
“So to say this region (Europe) will worry about its people, and others should not worry about what the impact will be on them, is not reasonable. And please do understand one thing. Europe was importing energy from Russia. Europe then started diverting to other producers and that put pressure on the market. So what are we supposed to do? Pay higher prices just to make you happy? Life is about respecting other people’s interests, not about having everything your way.”
The EAM is in Italy to attend a G7 foreign ministers’ Outreach session.
