External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that the world is realizing the need to enter the negotiation table to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The EAM was speaking at the 22nd edition of the Doha Forum panel on ‘Conflict Resolution in a New Era,’ where Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and Norway Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide were also present.
“The general sort of needle is moving more towards the reality of a negotiation than the continuation of the war…In the last few weeks and months, I’ve even seen this sentiment expressed by major European leaders, who are actually telling us, please keep engaging Russia and engaging Ukraine. We welcome that. So we do think that things are moving somewhere in that direction,” Jaishankar said.
“Pleased to participate @DohaForumpanel today on the topic “Conflict Resolution in a New Era” in Doha today along with PM & FM@MBA_Al Thani_of Qatar and FM @EspenBarthEide of Norway. As the conflicts around us increase, the need of the hour is more diplomacy, not less,” he stated in a post on X.
While speaking at the forum, Jaishankar also gave a stern reply to the ‘criticism’ on India’s purchase of Russian oil. On being questioned about getting ‘cheap oil’ from Russia, the EAM said, “I get oil, yes. It is not necessarily cheap. Do you have a better deal?” Further speaking on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the EAM reiterated India’s stance that the situation can only be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, and not on the battlefield.
“We’ve always held to the view that this war is not going to be solved on the battlefield. At the end of the day, people are going to return to some kind of negotiating table, the sooner the better. Our effort has been to facilitate that to the extent possible. That has not been the most popular thing, at least in some parts of the world,” Jaishankar said at the discussion.
The foreign minister further emphasized that the world is accepting the reality of negotiation rather than continuing the war. He further pointed out Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia and Ukraine, with the aim of encouraging a resolution to the conflict.
“I do think today, the needle is moving more towards the reality of the negotiation than the continuation of the war…We are going to Moscow, talking to President Putin, going to Kyiv, engaging President Zelenskyy, meeting them in other places, trying to see if we can encourage find common threads that can be picked up at some point of time when the circumstances are right to be developed,” he said.
Jaishankar, however, also clarified that India does not have a ‘peace plan’ to resolve the conflict but holds “honest and transparent” conversations between both parties. “We’re not attempting a peace plan, we’re not doing a mediation in that sense. We’re doing multiple conversations and very transparent about telling each parties that the end of conversation that this is what we’ll tell the other party. We think that at this point of time, the most useful…diplomatically,” he said. He further added that he believed that it was important to bring the Global South’s perspective on how they are impacted by the war.
“We also believe in this that we articulate the sentiments and the interests of the global South, 125 other countries who found their fuel costs, food costs, inflation, their fertilizer cost impacted by this war,” he said.
EAM Jaishankar is on an official visit to Qatar and Bahrain from December 6-9. In Bahrain, he will co-chair the 4th India-Bahrain High Joint Commission (HJC) with the foreign minister of Bahrain, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani. EAM will also participate in the 20th edition of the IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on December 8.
