'Our meeting is devoted to assessing our ties': Jaishankar holds talks with Russian counterpart Lavrov in Moscow

Moscow: Amid speculation in the US about India's peacemaking role in Ukraine, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday held talks in Moscow covering a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interests.

The external affairs minister arrived in Moscow on Monday evening.

Jaishankar and Lavrov have already met four times after the Ukraine conflict began in February.

Since the Ukraine conflict began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to Russian President Putin as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a number of times.

"Our meeting is devoted to assessing our ties; exchanging perspectives on global situation and what it means to our respective interests, " news agency PTI quoted S Jaishankar at meeting with Russian counterpart.

"Where bilateral ties are concerned, our objective is to fashion a contemporary, balanced, mutually beneficial and long-term engagement. Covid, trade difficulties have taken a toll on global economy; we are now seeing consequences of Ukraine conflict on top of that," Jaishankar added.

"There are more perennial issues of terrorism and climate change, both of which have a disruptive impact on progress and prosperity," said the External Affairs Minister.

In a phone conversation with Zelenskyy on October 4, Modi said there can be "no military solution" and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.

At a bilateral meeting with Putin in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on September 16, Modi told him that "today's era is not of war".

India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.