Ukraine war serves no one's interest but impacts everyone: Jaishankar
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Canberra: War in Ukraine serves no one's interest, it would have a "very profound impact" on every nation across the world, said External Affairs Minister Jaishankar. He added that India is against such hostilities, PTI reported.
Addressing a joint press meeting with Australian foreign minister Penny Wong in Canberra, Jaishankar refused to predict India's vote, in advance, on the draft resolution against Russia in the UN General Assembly, featuring not recognising Moscow annexing four Ukrainian territories.
"As a matter of prudence and policy, we don't predict our votes in advance... We have been very clearly against the conflict in Ukraine," the minister said
Jaishamkar said, "We believe that this conflict does not serve the interests of anybody, neither the participants nor indeed of the international community. And as a country of the Global South, we have been seeing first-hand how much it has impacted low-income countries, the challenges that they are facing in terms of fuel and food and fertilisers."
"So, my Prime Minister said a few weeks ago at a summit contact, "this is not an era of war". And, you know, a conflict today in some corner of the world can have a very profound impact on everybody across the world. And I think that continues to guide our thinking," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties recently to annex four regions of Ukraine and said that the Russian territory is now and will be defended by Moscow.
Earlier this month, India had abstained from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Security Council, which condemned Russia's "illegal referenda" and annexation of the four territories. The resolution also called for an immediate stoppage of violence while and stated that more negotiation is needed.
However, India so far has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine but maintains that the crisis must be solved by diplomacy and dialogue.
But Australian foreign minister Penny Wong reiterated its condemnation of the invasion and called the annexations a sham and illegal.