The meeting took place on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on October 30 and 31. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Atlanta, where the two discussed the Ukraine conflict, the situation in the Gulf and wider international issues.
They also expressed their intention to provide more than $85 million in technical and financial assistance to improve access to trusted artificial intelligence across the Indo-Pacific. The Quad members also announced plans for the first Sea Dragon 2027 maritime surveillance collaboration initiative. The ministers announced plans to establish the first-ever Quad Business Leaders’ Forum to encourage cooperation between businesses and governments.
India has continued to engage with Russia through high-level diplomatic meetings despite differences between Moscow and Western countries over the war in Ukraine. India has also maintained its position that dialogue and diplomacy are important for resolving international conflicts. Jaishankar also called for diplomacy over military action while addressing the G20 gathering. The meeting ended without a joint communique as members failed to reach an agreement on several major issues. Instead, the United States planned to issue a chairman’s statement outlining the discussions.
He said military solutions would not work in dealing with global challenges and stressed that diplomacy should be given a chance.
