External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Friday held talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
While having talks with Blinken, Jaishankar focussed on a range of challenges with “greater understanding and openness”.
The talks took place on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting (FMM) in the Indonesian city of Bali.
“Continued the conversation with @SecBlinken on global and regional issues, this time at Bali #G20FMM. Our relationship today allows us to approach a range of challenges with greater understanding and openness,” Jaishankar tweeted.
The conversation with Lavrov included discussions on global issues including the crisis in Ukraine and the situation in Afghanistan.
“Met FM Sergey Lavrov of Russia on the sidelines of the Bali #G20FMM. Discussed bilateral matters of mutual interest. Also exchanged views on contemporary regional and international issues including the Ukraine conflict and Afghanistan,” Jaishankar tweeted.
The Jaishankar-Lavrov talks came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed in a phone conversation the state of global energy and food markets in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.
India walks a tightrope between US and Russia
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.
In the last few months, India has also increased the import of discounted crude oil from Russia notwithstanding increasing disquiet over it by several Western powers.
India’s crude oil imports from Russia have jumped over 50 times since April and now it makes up for 10% of all crude bought from overseas.
India has also dismissed calls from the US and its Western partners not to accelerate the purchases of discounted Russian commodities, including oil, and said all such decisions will be made in line with the country’s national security interests.
At G20, tensions between West and Russia at the fore
The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali was dominated by the Ukraine war and its impact on food and energy security, and these issues were also discussed in almost all bilateral meetings, Indonesia’s foreign minister Retno Marsudi said after the talks concluded.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the meeting that 1.2 billion people are severely exposed to rising food and energy prices and tightening financial conditions, and the food crisis was “not caused by any sanctions” but by Russia “invading the world’s breadbasket and turning the shipping lanes of the Black Sea into a war zone”.
Borrell contended that Russia is blocking millions of tonnes of grains in Ukrainian storage facilities and “using food as a weapon of war” against the world’s most vulnerable countries.
“We work on various strands of action, but the easiest solution remains with one man: President Putin, who should stop this senseless war to avoid a global food and energy calamity,” he tweeted.
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that ministers from Western states had resorted to “frenzied criticism” of Russia instead of focusing on global economic issues.
The United States has sought to isolate Russia on the world stage and aides to Blinken said they saw no point in speaking to Lavrov so long as Moscow pursues its war in Ukraine.
