External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov focusing on the Ukraine conflict, bilateral ties and issues relating to the G20 foreign ministers' meeting.
The biggest question looming over the summit is whether there will be a joint leaders' declaration in view of the sharp differences between the West and the Russia-China combine on the text to describe the Ukraine conflict in the document.
Modi also invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha to urge the delegates to draw inspiration from India's civilisational ethos and "focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us."
Indian imports of Russian crude oil may stabilise or even decline in 2024 from record 2023 levels amid shrinking discounts, lower output, and a rebound in West Asian supplies, according to the ship-tracking data and industry executives. This may impact the billions of dollars in annual savings that India made last year. Imports of Russian oil jumped by a record 140 per cent in calendar 2023 to 1.79 million barrels a day (b/d) from 740,400 b/d in 2022, when Russia marched into Ukraine in February, and from just 102,000 b/d in 2021, according to the data from Paris-based market intelligence agency Kpler.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday warned that a third World War, should it break out, will be "nuclear and devastating", amid spiralling tensions with the West over Moscow's ongoing massive military operation against Ukraine.
India has emerged as a 'major power' by achieving outstanding results in economic development and social governance and its transformation as a stronger, assertive country has made it a 'new geopolitical factor', according to a commentary by a Chinese scholar in a state-run newspaper in Beijing.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
China has signalled that it will prevent India from assuming leadership of the Global South, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Jaishankar also spoke about how he expected a change in Russia's direction towards the rest of the world and it may likely want multiple options in Asia.
Speculation is rife that Xi is likely to make an attempt to initiate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
There is a congruence of interests between Ukrainian intelligence and its Western mentors to destroy Wagner and eliminate it from the geopolitical chessboard altogether, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The silver lining for India's presidency is likely to be the support by almost all G20 countries to its proposal to include the African Union as a permanent member of the bloc that has emerged as perhaps the most influential multilateral forum after the United Nations.
India is one of the few countries in the region that enjoys good relations with both Israel and Saudi Arabia, and IMEC would allow it to recreate the old Spice Route to Europe. All this is in jeopardy now, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Friday that the group should consider staging its own major sporting competition.
'There is a cost to war.' 'The West knows that and so does Putin.' 'The point is, how much of the cost are both sides willing to pay?'
Although India-US relations have strengthened significantly in recent years, partly because of the security situation in the region, the Indian policy establishment would have to be prepared to protect India's interests in a world that could get more unpredictable.
Jaishankar said he apprised Prime Minister Shmyhal of "India's principled position that emphasises cessation of all hostilities and return to dialogue and diplomacy."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a fresh push for reforms in global institutions, including the United Nations, asserting that the world's 'new realities' should be reflected in 'new global structure' as it is nature's law that those who don't change with times lose their relevance.
'The aim of Russian policy is to reform European security, stop NATO expansion and in a more general sense -- set up the new rules of relations between the great powers.' 'From this perspective. the invasion of Ukraine is quite pointless.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday denounced Western powers for not approving necessary decisions against Russian military operations in Ukraine and also not saving the country from the missiles and bomb attacks.
Countries like Russia cannot be "locked up" behind the iron curtain, the Russian presidential spokesman asserted on Thursday, as the US-led West threatened to impose more biting sanctions against Moscow after President Vladimir Putin ordered a military offensive against Ukraine.
The mixed narratives emerging from Russia undermine Mr Putin's position and authority even more than the actual facts, observes Mihir S Sharma.
While Narendra Modi spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor -- 275 days versus Dr Singh's 306 - he has travelled more widely than any other Indian PM.
'This, together with Chinese revisionism, will constitute the major test of the international system.'
'He will consolidate the Russian hold over the Eastern Russian majority provinces in Ukraine and quickly withdraw from the rest of Ukraine.' 'At all costs, the Russians should avoid attacking and capturing urban areas, else they risk getting into a quagmire,' cautions Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Early Sunday morning, March 13, 2022, a series of Russian missiles struck the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, killing at least 35 and wounding scores, according to Ukrainian officials.
"I imagined my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
It is only the Indian approach of holding on to multiple realities and contradictory ideas simultaneously that is likely to deliver peace and progress. Binary logic is out of sync with reality, notes R Jagannathan.
'You know the kind of force involved in all of this. They are not good for the country where all of this will happen.'
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and a Republican presidential aspirant have called his fellow rival Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy a guy who sounds like ChatGPT and described him as an "amateur" Barack Obama.
As Russia concentrates its attack on the east and south of the country, residents of the Kyiv region are returning to assess the war's toll on their communities.
Zelenskyy appeared in very good spirits during his visit to Izium; the Ukrainians claim they have recaptured as much as 6,000 square kilometres from the retreating Russian army.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has raised India's long-standing concerns about pro-Khalistan extremism in the United Kingdom during his meetings with the country's leaders, stressing that they should be on guard against the misuse of freedom of expression and speech.
Wladimir and his brother Vitali have both vowed to take up arms against invading Russian forces.
"Reports of PM Modi not meeting Putin due to nuclear threat is baseless. The meeting is not taking place due to scheduling issues," sources told ANI.
Latest satellite images issued by United States company Maxar revealed that Russian forces are getting ready for a massive offensive in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv.
The fall of Kherson -- a city of 300,000 people, northwest of the Crimean peninsula -- is significant because it would allow the Russians to control more of Ukraine's southern coastline and to push west toward the city of Odessa, the NYT reported.
Ukraine's Paralympic chief said on Friday his team would quit the Winter Paralympic Games if Russia invaded his home country, adding that he hoped the competition would be able to spread peace instead.
Putin said the 'policy' pursued by Modi is the main 'guarantor' of relations between the two countries.
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