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EU says asked India to ‘put pressure’ on Russia to end Ukraine war; MEA responds
The Russia-Ukraine War began in February 2022 and has been going on for almost four years now. India-EU signed an historic FTA on Tuesday.
European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas on Tuesday said that the EU has urged India to “put pressure” on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, saying that the ongoing conflict is “not good” for the countries. Kallas spoke after the historic signing of the “mother of all deals", the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the EU, on Tuesday.
Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri responded to Kallas’ argument, saying India was interested in seeing the “earliest possible” end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
What the European Council VP said
Kaja Kallas, who arrived in India on her first diplomatic visit to the country for the 16th India-EU Summit on January 24, said the EU wants the war to end. Accusing Russia of “playing games” and “pretending to negotiate”, Kallas said Moscow's tactics are not something “you can build peace on”.
“So what we have asked our Indian colleagues is to raise this with the Russians, put the pressure on the Russians so that they would also want peace because this is not good for Europe, this war. This war is not good for southern countries because of everything that is coming to the trade with wheat, everything that is derived from there. And I think this is the convergence where we have with what we have with Indians,” Kallas was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The Russia-Ukraine War began in February 2022 and has been going on for almost four years now. The Donald Trump administration of the US has been trying to mediate between Moscow and Kiev, but Russia’s demands, including for Donbas, have remained major sticking points.
India responds
Foreign secretary Vikram Misri said in a press conference on Tuesday that India was interested in seeing the “earliest possible cessation” of the Russia-Ukraine War.
"We are interested in seeing the earliest possible cessation of this conflict that has been going on for nearly four years now," Misri was quoted by ANI as saying.
The foreign secretary pointed out that the issue of India's relationship with Russia is one on which New Delhi has spoken publicly on several occasions.
“There is a historical context for that. I don't think we have the time today to dilate on that. But these are two things that stand on their own and that go forward on their own. Insofar as Ukraine is concerned, yes, it was discussed between the leaders today. The European leaders shared their perspective, their concerns with regard to the ongoing conflict,” Misri said.
The US administration has been critical of India buying Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine. President Trump even imposed a 50 per cent tariff on goods from India for the same, and threatened to raise it to 500 per cent. His commerce secretary, Scott Bessent, went ballistic on the India-EU trade deal on Tuesday, saying that Europe was “financing a war on itself” by buying Russian oil from India.
Misri said that India favoured a negotiated solution to end the four-year-old war.
“Prime Minister Modi indicated to them that he had been in very close contact with leaders from both countries, from Russia as well as from Ukraine. We in India have always made our point of view very clear on this. We favour a negotiated solution between the parties most closely concerned with this conflict," he said.
"The Prime Minister himself has played a role in this by advocating this to both leaders every time that he has met them. He has publicly stated that India is ready to do whatever is needed to be done in order to support the outcomes from such a negotiated solution and that we are interested in seeing the earliest possible cessation of this conflict that has been going on for nearly four years now," he added.
