India's foreign minister S Jaishankar had a “comprehensive’’ discussion with his visiting Ukraine counterpart Dmytro Kuleba about efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while also reiterating India’s commitment to ramp up bilateral cooperation with the war-torn country. India expressed its willingness to contribute to any effort for peaceful settlement of the war that has dragged on for over two years and with no end in sight.
As expected, Kuleba sought India’s cooperation in efforts to host a proposed peace summit in Switzerland in the summer of this year and also support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace formula that he had announced before G7 leaders in 2022. The plan seeks, among other things, complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. India, which has not yet explicitly condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine, is yet to announce support for Zelenskyy’s peace plan.
“Our discussions focused on the ongoing conflict and its wider ramifications. Exchanged views on various initiatives in that context,” said Jaishankar in a post on X after his ‘open and wide-ranging’ talks with Kuleba.
Kuleba said after the meeting that ‘specific attention’ was given to the peace formula and the next steps on the path of its implementation. “We also co-chaired the Ukrainian-Indian inter-governmental commission review meeting and agreed to restore the level of cooperation between our countries that existed prior to the full scale war launched by Russia, as well as identify new promising projects to take our relations to the next level,” said Kuleba.
