India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval had lengthy discussions with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu during a meeting in St Petersburg on Wednesday night.
It is believed that discussions between the two NSAs took into consideration India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on August 23 in Kyiv. The discussions happened on the sidelines of a gathering of BRICS national security advisors.
At the meeting between Doval and Shoigu, “both sides reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and discussed important issues of mutual interest,” the Indian embassy in Russia stated. Doval’s journey to Russia takes place two and a half weeks after Prime Minister Modi made a well-publicized visit to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is in Germany, stated that Russia and Ukraine would need to settle their dispute by diplomatic means rather than going to war, and that India is prepared to offer them advice.
Talking about the Russia-Ukraine war, he said, “We don’t think this conflict will be resolved on the battlefield. At some stage, there’s going to be some negotiation. When there is a negotiation, the main parties – Russia and Ukraine – have to be at that negotiation.” He recalled the trips made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to both Russia and Ukraine, stating that India had declared in both cities that they were not living in a time of war.
“We don’t think you’re going to get a solution out of the battlefield. We think you’ve got to negotiate… If you want advice, we are always willing to give it…,” he further added and said that although nations face differences, war is not a healthy method to address these issues.
Later, during a joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, Jaishankar proposed bringing up Russia in any talks over the matter.
