External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the few leaders in the world today, who can engage with Russia and Ukraine.
“In respect of Ukraine, in the last few months, PM Modi met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thrice. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin once. He’s spoken to him more often and the NSA (National Security Advisor) and myself, we’ve been in touch,” Jaishankar said while addressing the Kautilya Economic Conclave on Sunday.
He emphasised the role India has played in trying to find a point of convergence between the two parties in the conflict.
He said: “The reason we are doing it is we are one of the few countries and PM Modi is one of the few leaders who today, has the ability to go to Kyiv and Moscow and talk to the two leaders and see what are their common points, is there something we can start or is there some convergence, some intersection that we can see which can become a strand which you pick up and try and develop and see whether things could be better?”
Further, speaking on the escalating situation in the Middle East, Jaishankar noted that the conflict is even more challenging due to the numerous parties involved and their lack of acknowledgement regarding their roles in the conflict.
“The Middle East is more tricky in a way. There are more parties, not all of them acknowledge their role in what they are doing,” he said.
The External Affairs Minister acknowledged India’s role in bridging gaps between countries that don’t communicate with each other.
“It’s not that we have been uninvolved. At various times, we have played some role in communication between countries who don’t communicate with each other. The Global South is feeling the pain much more of a global society and a global economy under stress. They would like somebody to do something about it. To the extent that you have a country like India which understands their concerns and is able to put it across,” Jaishankar said.
“They clearly support a lot of our initiatives. It was very visible in the UN. It’s important that we are really connected to all the major players. We are seen as a country with a greater sense of responsibility towards the global polity and it’s part of India’s own evolution,” he added.
