"Moscow and India shares long history," says EAM Jaishankar during visit to Vienna, Austria

India: Minister of External Affairs of India, S Jaishankar is currently on his two-nation visit. During the second leg of the tour, Jaishanshar participated in a joint press briefing with Austrian diplomat Alexander Schallenberg. While interacting in the meeting, he threw light on the energy dealing with Russia, India and Moscow diplomatic ties and many other important international topics.

Indian Minister explained that he agrees that European nation has reduced its imports but it has been doing it in a manner that it is comfortable for the region. He added that India need energy and is not in a place to pay high prices to other countries as the price of the oil is doubled. Jaishankar also stated that the Europe has been moving towards the Middle East, resulting in high energy prices, which may put pressure on the global oil markets.

Furthermore, he provided a history lesson and reminded the critics that Moscow has been sharing strong relationship with India and has been helping the nation when the democratic West was providing arm to Pakistan, a military dictatorship. He was asked whether reluctance of India to criticise Moscow is because Russia has been important supplier of weapons and military equipment. He outlined that relationship between Moscow and India is longstanding and it is very essential to have a look at the history of the relationship.

He was quoted saying, “The relationship was built during the times when military dictatorship called Pakistan was assisted by western democracies and India was dined to have arms.” While digging in the history EAM Jaishankar pointed out that India has a strong bond with Russia and Soviet Union because the western democracies partnered with the military dictatorship. He further claimed that the war between Russia and Ukraine is not in anybody’s interest including Russia’s.

In addition to this, EAM of India said about the international peace and security that are posed by terrorism, such as cross-border practices, radicalization and fundamentalism with the Austrian diplomat. He stated that their effects cannot be contained within a region especially so when they are deeply connected to narcotics and illegal weapons trade, and other forms of international crime. Since the epicentre is located so close to India, naturally our experiences and insights are useful to others.