India spoken 'frankly & bluntly' with Russia on Ukraine conflict

Highlighting India's efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India has had the opportunity to talk to Moscow "very frankly and bluntly" on the issue.

He also said that India has been used by others in 'passing messages' during the conflict.

Jaishankar, during his a visit to Malaysia, was interacting with the Indian community during an event.

"I go back to India tomorrow, I have the foreign minister of Ukraine visiting me the day after that. We have also been the country who have the opportunity to talk to the Russians very frankly and bluntly on this issue (Russia-Ukraine conflict). On different aspects, others have used us to pass messages," Jaishankar said.

"The same thing applies when it comes to the Gaza-Israel conflict as well. This is not an issue of a moral cop-out. This is an issue today of appreciating that real life actually has a whole lot of complexities and that the considered answers, the sustainable answers, cannot be very angular. They cannot pick some facets to the exclusion of other facets," he added.

Regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India has always condemned civilian killings and called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba will land in India for a two-day visit today during which he will discuss bilateral ties as well as cooperation on regional and global issues of mutual interest. He is visiting India on invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Apart from meeting Jaishankar, the visiting leader is also expected to meet Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri and interact with the business community.

"During his visit, Foreign Minister Kuleba will have a number of engagements, including official meetings with External Affairs Minister and Deputy NSA to discuss matters pertaining to the bilateral partnership and cooperation on regional and global issues of mutual interest," a Ministry of External Affairs press release said.

In a major statement, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Putin that "this is not the era of war" on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Uzbekistan last year. The statement even made to the G20 communique under the presidency of India.

The visit comes days after a telephonic conversation between PM Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on March 20, during which the two leaders discussed ways to further strengthen India-Ukraine partnership in various spheres.

(ANI)