In Delhi for the ‘Munich Leaders Meeting’ where External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar indicated for the first time that India is mediating between Russia and Ukraine for specific agreement, Mr. Excerpts:
India and France have a common attachment to “strategic autonomy,” says French Minister-Delegate for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad, indicating that European countries are increasingly seeking more “middle power coalitions” to hedge against the uncertainty in ties with superpowers U.S. and China. Haddad told The Hindu in an interview that he hoped India would use its “voice” to bring Russia to the table for peace talks.
And I think in this respect, a country like India, that is a respected actor on the international stage, can play a role in working with us to find a peaceful solution — which is what we want, but clearly that Russia continues to refuse. The best way to put an end to this war is to increase the pressure on Russia to get it back to the negotiating table, and so it means also increasing economic pressures. We generally don’t lecture other countries on what they should do, but at the European level, we have adopted different packages of sanctions. We are working on the 22nd package of sanctions right now, precisely to increase the economic pressure on the Russian regime, in energy mostly, but also to limit its ability to conduct the war. Europeans are by far the first provider of aid and support to Ukraine, which is also a good example of European strategic autonomy and that we have taken ownership on our security, and there is a lot of interest from Europeans to work with India in finding a diplomatic solution. Europeans are not involved in [the Iran] war. We have always called for de-escalation. We have always called to find peaceful and diplomatic solutions, whether that is on the freedom of navigation, the Strait of Hormuz, but including on tackling issues where we agree with the U.S. for example, the Iranian nuclear programme, its ballistic missile programme, its support for terrorist proxies in the region. The fact that the U.S. withdrew from this deal under the first Trump administration actually accelerated the nuclear programme from Iran, not the other way around. Europeans and the French act as predictable and reliable partners, and this is exactly why, on this basis, that we want to build a relationship with India.
We said the best way is to do it through a diplomatic channel, like we did in concluding the JCPOA in 2015.
I have seen Indian leaders state very clearly that they want to find a peaceful solution, including Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi, who told President [Vladimir] Putin that it is time to stop the wars.
