External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, responding to a question at the Nikkei Forum on India-Japan Special Strategic Partnership, defended India’s stance on Russia amidst ongoing Ukraine conflict.
He said that people tend to “cherry-pick principles” when it suits them and ignore them when it doesn’t. He was asked whether India’s decision not to criticise Russia and its territorial violation of Ukraine should be considered as “double-standards.”
He replied, “My position is that the world is a complicated place, and there are many important principles and beliefs in the world. Sometimes in world politics, countries pick one issue, one situation, one principle, and highlight it because it suits them.”
He further added that India experienced aggression immediately after independence, and even now, parts of India are occupied. But the world didn’t respond.
Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that we do not believe that this is an era of war and the conflict should be resolved.
“My Prime Minister has stood next to President Putin and has said that we do not believe this is an era of war. We are here today to resolve this conflict,” he said.
He stated that conflicts end when people come to the table. He further added that a conflict can be decided on the battlefield, “but we don’t think this conflict will be decided on the battlefield.”
Earlier in Feb, during the Munich Security Conference, Jaishankar defended India’s position on Russia saying, “India doesn’t expect Europe to have a New Delhi-centric view of China and Europe should also understand that India won’t move with the European view of Russia.”
(Inputs from ANI)