Ukraine conflict of ‘profound concern’, Jaishankar tells U.N. Security Council
The Hindu
External Affairs Minister asks parties to come to negotiating table
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was among a group of Ministers, heads of government and representatives at the United Nations Security Council who expressed their concern on September 22 over the continuing conflict in Ukraine.
While he did not name Russia specifically, unlike the representatives of many other countries, Mr. Jaishankar said the conflict was a matter of “profound concern” for the global community.
“The future outlook appears even more disturbing,” he said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of 300,000 potential combatants and a threat of nuclear action. The conflict has also put the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at risk of damage, a matter than was raised by several speakers at the meeting on September 22.
“The nuclear issue is a particular anxiety,” Mr. Jaishankar said. Distant regions — especially in the global South —were feeling the conflict’s impact, he said, as he highlighted food and fuel shortages.
“We must therefore, not initiate measures that further complicates the struggling global economy,” he said.
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“ And that is why India strongly reiterates the need for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and a return to dialogue and diplomacy,” he said, repeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement to Mr. Putin last week in Samarkand at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, “Now is not the era for war”.