Jaishankar refers to Afghan situation even as Truss pushes India on Ukraine

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday pointed out that last August’s events in Afghanistan that brought Taliban to power had impacted geopolitics closer to home even as his UK counterpart Liz Truss was persistent on describing war in Ukraine as single biggest event in recent times adversely impacting geopolitics.

Jaishankar also took exception to India being singled out over Russian oil imports. Without mentioning names of any particular country, he said "It's like a campaign on this issue.." over India Importing Oil from Russia. He referred to Europe importing energy from Russia in a big way.

India’s decision to import Russian oil received a support of sorted from Truss who said, "It's very important tho we respect other countries decision..India is a sovereign nation, I am not going to tell what it can do.”





Jaishankar and Truss were in conversation at an event (India-UK Strategic Futures Forum) on Thursday night here organised by Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) & Carnegie India in collaboration with Policy Exchange, UK.

Truss said the Ukraine crisis highlighted the need for like-minded nations to work together and that developments in that country will have far-reaching implications for the globe. "Strengthening relationship with India is more important than it has ever been precisely because we are living in a more insecure world, precisely because we have (Vladimir) Putin's appalling invasion of Ukraine," she said. "I think it is very significant that sanctions are applied on Russia," she said addressing the India-UK Strategic Futures Forum along with Jaishankar.

Jaishankar on his part referred to Economic implications of Ukraine war including price rise of energy and commodity. Instead of referring to Russian actions in Ukraine, the Indian Minister called for dialogue maintaining India’s stand on the issue. In his context he referred to his conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi here. “…we did agree on is need to agree on urgent ceasefire, dialogue.”

He went to focus considerably on Afghanistan which is closer to Indias geography and referred to proximity factor. “What we saw happening in Afghanistan, impacted us, it didn't had impact in Europe…”

Earlier during the bilateral dialogue the two sides also discussed the implementation of the Migration and Mobility Partnership which has the potential to bring the people of both countries even closer. They also discussed the modalities of instituting the Strategic Tech Dialogue to enhance cooperation on new and emerging strategic technologies like 5G, AI and quantum.

The two Ministers agreed to resolve legacy issues and deepen defence and security cooperation including in defence co-development and co-production, and enhance capacities to address growing threats in the cyber, space and maritime domains. India welcomed the UK’s interest in participating in its national defence manufacturing programme through Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat. They agreed to consult intensively on this, according to a MEA statement.

“They emphasised the need retain strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific region and in this context, India welcomed the readiness of the UK side in undertaking activities under the Maritime Security Pillar of the Indo-Pacific Ocean’s Initiative (IPOI). IPOI is an open, inclusive, non-treaty based, global initiative that was announced by Prime Minister Modi at the 14th East Asia Summit in November 2019 to promote collaborative efforts among like-minded nations to better manage, conserve, sustain and secure the Indo-Pacific maritime domain,” according to MEA statement.

The India-UK relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the India-UK virtual summit held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson in May last year.

In the summit, the two sides adopted a 10-year roadmap to expand ties in the key areas of trade and economy, defence and security, climate change and people-to-people connections. UK PM is expected to visit India in April.