A day after external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Russia, the US State Department said it is important for Russia to hear the message for dialogue and diplomacy amid the ongoing Ukraine war, “especially from countries like India”.
Speaking about the recent meetings between the foreign ministers of both the countries, Ned Price, spokesperson of the US State Department, said, “We’ve had a number of high-level engagements with our Indian counterparts in the past few months. Recently. Blinken met with foreign minister Jaishankar just a couple of months ago.”
“The messages we heard from foreign minister Jaishankar on Russia were not dissimilar from Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he said 'this is not an ear of war'. India again reaffirms that it stands against this war. It wants to see dialogue, it wants to see diplomacy. It wants to see an end to this needless bloodshed that Russia is responsible for inside of Ukraine,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“The messages we heard from foreign minister Jaishankar on Russia were not dissimilar from Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he said 'this is not an ear of war'. India again reaffirms that it stands against this war. It wants to see dialogue, it wants to see diplomacy. It wants to see an end to this needless bloodshed that Russia is responsible for inside of Ukraine,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Stressing the importance of India’s role in the current international situation, Price said it is key that Russians hear this message from countries around the world…"especially important that Russia hears this message from countries like India.”
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On Tuesday, Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov held talks in Moscow covering a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests. Laying out India's position on the Ukraine conflict, Jaishankar said, "As Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to Russian President Putin: this is not an era of war. The global economy is simply too interdependent for significant conflict anywhere not to have major consequences elsewhere."
In September, while delivering his televised opening remarks at the meeting with Putin, Modi had said, “I know today’s era is not [an era] of war. We discussed this issue with you on phone several times, that democracy, diplomacy and dialogue touch the entire world.”
During past phone conversations with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, Modi had also suggested direct talks between the two sides.
India has consistently called for an end to the fighting in Ukraine and pushed for dialogue while refraining from publicly censuring Putin for the invasion launched in February.
The Indian side has not voted against Russia at the UN but also repeatedly raised the impact of the Ukraine crisis on food and energy prices, especially for vulnerable countries.