Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent telephonic conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a call thereafter from external affairs minister S Jaishankar to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov highlight New Delhi’s accelerated efforts to facilitate peace and operational agreements between the two warring countries. Washington, Kyiv and Moscow have resumed trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
After giving a peace proposal last month that Ukraine deemed the most comprehensive one, India, a neutral party in the ongoing conflict,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent telephonic conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a call thereafter from external affairs minister S Jaishankar to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov highlight New Delhi’s accelerated efforts to facilitate peace and operational agreements between the two warring countries. Washington, Kyiv and Moscow have resumed trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
After giving a peace proposal last month that Ukraine deemed the most comprehensive one, India, a neutral party in the ongoing conflict, has reiterated the importance of safe food corridors in the Black Sea region. This is a key concern since India has faced an upward trajectory in retail inflation — though still within the RBI’s tolerance band of 4±2% — driven largely by rising food prices. With a combination of hostile factors, from El Niño effects on rainfall to conflict-driven volatility in fuel prices, the outlook on food inflation seems worrying in the near term. A workable agreement between Ukraine and Russia, at least on Black Sea food corridors, would therefore be welcome.
Geopolitically, India’s initiative comes at a time of a possible shift in the US-Israel-Iran conflict. Benjamin Netanyahu is almost set to demit office, and his rival Gadi Eisenkot may be not be in favour of escalating hostilities against Tehran if he is able to form the government. Additionally, on the American side, it is expected that the Republicans’ midterm rout will, eventually, have a sobering influence on further war efforts in the region. Washington has already indicated that military action may be effectively over though President Donald Trump has been inconsistent with his stand on the issue.
If the West Asian crisis subsides and coincides with some form of Russia-Ukraine rapprochement, economic pressure on the energy front could also ease. While India has secured transit concessions from Tehran in the Strait of Hormuz on the one hand and bought LNG stocks from the US on the other, any escalation there will undermine these hedging efforts.
While India’s initiatives to leverage its dependability as a neutral peacebroker align closely with its domestic interests, they are also a reiteration of its place at the global high table.
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