Russia welcomes PM Modi's ‘readiness to mediate’ in Ukraine conflict

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, April 1

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday conveyed to visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, India’s readiness to contribute in any way to the peace efforts in the conflict in Ukraine.

PM Modi also reiterated his call for an early cessation of violence in a meeting with Lavrov who rounded up his brief stay with an extensive meeting with his counterpart S Jaishankar.  

Speaking to the media, Lavrov said he had discussed the holding of the next meeting of the Indo-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific & Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), a premier government-to-government mechanism to guide bilateral economic cooperation.

Soon after holding talks with Jaishankar, he welcomed India’s role in mediation and said New Delhi has not been involved so far unlike Israel and Turkey.

The need for “mutual interest and the search for balance of interests will prevail in future as well,’’ he said in a hint at the neutral position taken by India and several other developing countries.

“More and more transactions will be done using national currencies and bypassing dollar-based systems,’’ he hoped while underlining Moscow’s readiness to provide anything that India wanted.

“New Delhi is one of the key priorities for Moscow based on principles of equality and mutual trust. We are interested in having a balanced world order which makes it sustainable,’’ he said.

“We do not hide anything and appreciate India’s view after studying the entirety of facts and not just in a one-sided way,’’ he added.

Jaishankar’s opening remarks were more matter of fact. “`Our meeting takes place in a difficult international environment quite apart from the pandemic. India has always been in favour of resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and diplomacy,’’ he observed. 

The hint of displeasure over economic volatility due to the conflict was also reflected in a MEA release. Jaishankar underlined that as a developing economy; India is especially concerned about global volatility in different domains, said the MEA, adding that, “it is important for both countries that their economic and technological contacts remain stable and predictable.

“Differences and disputes should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy and by respect for international law, UN Charter, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states,’’ it observed. The Ministers also discussed the situation in Afghanistan. Lavrov, whose last stop was in Central China for a conference on Afghanistan, conveyed his assessment of the meeting.

Former envoy to UN hits back

Former diplomat Syed Akbaruddin rapped US Deputy NSA Daleep Singh for his observations that Washington would not like to see a rapid acceleration of India’s imports from Russia in items that are prohibited by the US or the international sanctions regime. “This is not the language of diplomacy…This is the language of coercion…Somebody tell this young man that punitive unilateral economic measures are a breach of customary international law,’’ he tweeted.

Singular gesture for Lavrov

Lavrov’s call on PM Modi was noted in diplomatic circles because this gesture was not accorded to the Chinese and British Foreign Ministers who had visited the national capital in recent weeks. In fact, Foreign Ministers arriving to invite PM Modi, as in the case of Wang Yi, in normal course get to meet the PM.