External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said “India does not have a peace plan” for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, adding that New Delhi is only leveraging its access to both capitals to explore ways out of the stalemate.
Jaishankar was responding to a specific question during an interactive session at the New York-based Asia Society on what India was going to do to help solve the problem between Russia and Ukraine.
With his categorical response, Jaishankar sought to put an end to speculation about India having drawn up a peace plan. This has gained currency over the last couple of months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s back-to-back visits to Moscow and Kyiv which was followed up with his telephone conversations with US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have been engaging both the Russian government and the Ukrainian government in Moscow, Kyiv and other places to see whether there is something we can do which would hasten the end of the conflict and initiate some kind of serious negotiation between them. This is the kind of exploration that we have been doing. It’s not that we have a peace plan. We are not suggesting anything," Jaishankar said, iterating that wars are not the way of settling disputes and a solution is not going to come from the battlefield.
Stating that India is of the view that there will be a negotiation at some point, Jaishankar elaborated: “We are having these conversations and sharing these conversations with the other side. My sense is both sides appreciate this. If you look at the last few months, Prime Minister Modi met President Zelensky in June, he met President Putin in July, and he met President Zelensky again in August. This month we’ve had contacts. Our NSA had met President Putin. Yesterday Prime Minister Modi met Zelensky again. We think if these conversations are helpful and there’s something we can do, and there are not that many countries and that many leaders today who have the ability or the willingness to engage both Moscow and Kyiv at the same time, I think we could make a contribution. And certainly, there’s a widespread feeling in many parts of the world that the sooner the conflict ends, the better it is for the global economy and society."
On Monday, after the Prime Minister met Zelensky in New York, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said the Ukrainian side had requested the meeting and underscored the fact that this was their third engagement in three months. “The Prime Minister also mentioned during his conversation with Zelensky that he has been in talks with leaders of different countries, and discussions on this matter are ongoing. The consensus is that we must find a way to achieve a ceasefire, and our efforts are continuing in that direction.”
Asked about the specifics of the path to peace, Misri said: “Peace is the path.” Stating that discussions are on in multiple forums and listing some of those in which India was present, the foreign secretary said the attempt is to identify areas on which some consensus can be evolved but did not dwell on them.
