India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in St. Petersburg and discussed issues of ‘substantial interest. ’ This comes as India is being called upon to intervene and find a solution to the ongoing Eastern Ukraine conflict. The meeting between Ajit Doval & Shoigu happened during the BRICS national-security advisors’ meeting, identifying the rationale behind the coordinated work of these countries.
During the discussions, the two NSAs assessed the extent of the partnership at the bilateral level and considered matters of mutual concern to the two countries. In response to the question, the Indian embassy in Russia said that the talks also involved the assessment of the conversation between the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 23 August in Kyiv. Modi stressed the need for war-torn Ukraine and Russia to resolve the conflict and begin the negotiation process without any further delay and asserted India’s desire to become an ‘effective contributor’ to peace in the region.
It is also noteworthy that one of the loudest and most high-profile visits of the Indian prime minister took place in Ukraine as this was the first time since Ukraine’s independence in 1991. The visit came only six weeks after Modi’s bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, which showed India’s strategic neutrality during the war. The nine-hour stopover in Kyiv emphasized these facts, and it is necessary to note that India stated it was a peaceful country from the beginning of the war, particularly in the words of the Prime Minister regarding the desire to bring peace.
Recently, with the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, voices have emerged to propose India as a mediator for the dialogue between the two countries as it enjoys very friendly relations with both. After Meloni’s talks with Zelenskyy, she underlined that India and China could contribute significantly to the search for a solution to the prolonged conflict, which fixes India as an international actor number one.
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