Will India Impose Sanctions On Russia, Reporter Asks Jaishankar, Watch EAM's Reply

Kyiv: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a historic visit to Ukraine, on Friday held bilateral talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv including war, trade, economic issues, defence, education among others. One significant part of Modi-Zelenskyy discussions was also on India's energy trade relation with Moscow.

Addressing a presser after Modi-Zelenskyy meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was asked by one of the reporters whether India's energy trade with Russia came up during the discussions between the two leaders. 

Responding to media, Jaishankar said it did come up and India explained to the Ukraine side what was the energy market scenario and why it is in the interest of the international community as a whole.

On being asked whether India will impose sanctions on Russia, Jaishankar replied, "I would say generally in India we do not impose sanctions on any country. It's not part of our political diplomatic history... We generally look at UN sanctions. Those are the sanctions that we respect..."

Jaishankar also informed that PM Modi has invited President Zelenskyy to visit India. “We expect that as per his convenience President Zelenskyy will visit India…"

On PM Modi's message on the Russia-Ukraine war, EAM Dr S Jaishankar said, “It is India's view that the two sides need to engage with each other to find a solution...”

“...In the discussion, a significant part of it was devoted to our bilateral relations. There was a discussion about trade, economic issues, defence, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, education. There were a whole lot of issues...The leaders also tasked the Intergovernmental Commission, of which Minister Kuleba and I are the co-chairs, to specifically focus on rebuilding our trade and economic relations, which had gone down in recent times. And we certainly look forward to having an early meeting of that body, definitely by the end of this year...”

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