At some stage, people will come to table, sooner the better: Jaishankar on Ukraine conflict

Asserting that one is not going to find a solution from the battlefield, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that at some stage, "people will come to the table" when it comes to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The 69-year-old, who is in Italy on an official visit from November 24-26 to participate in the Outreach session of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, said "the sooner they do it, the better because the rest of the world is being affected".

Jaishankar said this during an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

"We have today two major conflicts taking place simultaneously. This is putting the entire international system under great stress,” he said.

"And we cannot be just spectators and say, well, that's the way it is. It may or may not work. We will not know until we try. But we do believe that on both these conflicts, in Ukraine and in the Middle East, countries need to take initiatives, make efforts, however difficult it looks, to try and find some common ground, something better than what we have today," he was quoted as saying in the interview published on Tuesday.

On the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the union minister reiterated that India thinks that there should be "diplomacy to find a way of ending the conflict". "And that's what we are trying to do," he said.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict that began in February 2022 entered its 1,000th day on November 19.

Asked what were the pathways he saw, the minister said, "Engaging the participants."

"So you have to talk to Moscow and you have to talk to Kyiv. And that's what we are trying to do. Look, it's now nearly three years. You're not going to get a solution from the battlefield, right? We have to negotiate. At some stage, people will come to the table. The sooner they do it, the better, because the rest of the world is affected," the minister added.

“It's not just that Europe is taking the brunt of this conflict. Everybody else's life is also impacted by what is happening. So, do understand there is a big feeling across very large parts of the world. More effort needs to be done to actually get the participants back to the negotiation table," he said.

The EAM further said that "the case for countries taking an initiative to return to the negotiating table is compelling". "And, I would say to you this is a very widespread sentiment in the world".

Asked what sense he was getting of the future course of this conflict, the EAM said, "We will know what Russia wants or Ukraine wants only when they get down to negotiation."

At a round-table session in New Delhi on November 20, Russian envoy to India Denis Alipov had said that there is not much ground for negotiation at present but Moscow is prepared to sit and talk with Kyiv, provided there is an "acceptable basis" for it.