EAM Jaishankar, Ukrainian foreign minister Kuleba hold bilateral talks

New Delhi, Mar 29 (PTI) India and Ukraine on Friday held “open and wide-ranging” talks here as part of a bilateral engagement between its foreign ministers, with discussions focussing on the “ongoing conflict and its wider ramifications”. Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba’s two-day visit to India comes amid efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to the more than two-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict. He arrived here on Thursday. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Kuleba at the Hyderabad House. After the meeting, Jaishankar in a post on X said, “An open and wide-ranging conversation with Ukraine FM @DmytroKuleba this afternoon”.

“Our discussions focused on the ongoing conflict and its wider ramifications. Exchanged views on various initiatives in that context. Spoke as well on global and regional issues of interest to both of us. Reiterated our commitment to strengthen the overall relationship, including bilateral cooperation,” he said.

Jaishankar also shared some photographs of him shaking hands with his Ukrainian counterpart and the bilateral meeting. On Thursday, Kuleba had posted on X, “I began my visit to New Delhi upon @DrSJaishankar’s invitation. The Ukrainian-Indian cooperation is important and we will be reinvigorating ties. Building on the dialogue between @ZelenskyyUa and @NarendraModi, we will pay specific attention to the Peace Formula.” During his weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in response to a query on Kuleba’s visit, on Thursday said there will be a “bilateral engagement with the external affairs minister in which they will go over a gamut of issues that lie in the domain of bilateral relations”. They will also “review the Inter-governmental Commission that was held earlier,” he had said.
The two leaders will also discuss regional and global issues of common concern, Jaiswal had said, adding that there are several other engagements also lined up for the Ukrainian foreign minister.

“Our position is very clear on peace initiatives and how we look at the Ukraine-Russia conflict. We continue to encourage peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy and remain open to engaging all ways and means that would help achieve this objective,” the MEA spokesperson had said on a query on India’s position on the peace conference in Switzerland. The peace formula proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022 follows 10 principles aimed at ensuring a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.