India has four-point principle on an end to Russia-Ukraine conflict, says Jaishankar

India has a four-point principle towards the resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday. He said that “suggestions have been made” for India to host a peace conference on the issue, but made no commitment on whether India would in fact forward any peace proposal of its own.

Responding to a question from The Hindu about the possibility of India hosting the conference, and playing a role as peacemaker, Mr. Jaishankar said that India believes in four principles: that this should be a time of peace; that there would be no solutions to the war on the battlefield; that Russia must be at the table for any successful peace process; and that India is “concerned and engaged” in trying to find a way to resolve the conflict.

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“We don’t believe disputes can be settled through war,” said Mr. Jaishankar, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to Moscow and Kyiv in the past two months.

“When there is a discussion, we believe Russia has to be in it,” he said, adding “Where India is concerned... it’s up to what the two parties (Russia and Ukraine) want. We continuously talk to them”, pointing out that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is in Russia this week.

 Mr. Jaishankar spoke to the media after a bilateral meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to prepare for a visit to New Delhi by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on October 24-25. Mr. Jaishankar said they had discussed “the state of the world”, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Gaza conflict as well as coordinating their agendas ahead of the UN Summit of the Future later this month, particularly India and Germany’s joint pitch for the expansion of the UN Security Council. The Ministers said they will meet again later this month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

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“Germany is in an intensive discussion with India and other countries about our different roles in bringing about peace,” Ms. Baerbock said, adding that despite “differences” in Indian and German positions on the conflict thus far, they had maintained regular discussions on the issues.

Ms. Baerbock’s comments follow a series of statements by Western coalition countries that have urged India, China and other countries to step up peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine, two-and-a-half years into the war. If India was to play a mediatory role, it would be significant shift from its previous position where it had called the war “Europe’s problem”, and not something connected to India’s “geography”. India has not so far accepted requests by Germany and other European countries including Ukraine to cut its oil imports from Russia, or as Mr. Zelenskyy said for India to “change its attitude” towards Russia.

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Economic ties with China

Addressing German diplomats at an “Ambassadors’s conference” earlier in the day, Mr. Jaishankar was also asked about economic ties with China, given the four-year-old military stand-off between the two countries that has led to many restrictions on Chinese companies and investment.

“We are not closed to business from China,” Mr. Jaishankar said, adding that, “The issue is, which sectors do you do business and what terms do you do business? It’s far more complicated than a black-and-white binary answer.”

During bilateral talks, Mr. Jaishankar and Ms. Baerbock discussed broadening the India-Germany migration and mobility partnership to bring in more skilled Indian workers to Germany. According to Ms. Baerbock, about 1,25,000 Indian nationals are now working and 50,000 students are studying in Germany. They also spoke about building their military partnership after holding their first-ever joint air force exercises this year, and upcoming naval exercises in Goa in October. In an effort to increase annual bilateral trade levels of $30 billion and about $25 billion in investment from Germany, New Delhi will be the venue for the Asia Pacific Conference of German Business next month.