National Security Adviser Ajit Doval’s visit to Russia this week to attend a meeting of senior security officials of Brics member states will be closely watched against the backdrop of a renewed push for peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Doval will attend the meeting of NSAs and senior security officials of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (Brics) grouping to be held in St Petersburg during September 10-12, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. He will also participate in a meeting of Brics-Plus high-level security officials, they said.
The meetings are being organised by Russia, current chair of Brics, ahead of the grouping’s summit in Kazan in October. Doval is also expected to hold several bilateral meetings, including with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, the people said.
However, Doval’s visit comes at a time when world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have spoken of a possible role for India in helping find a solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Meloni was the latest to comment on this matter, telling reporters after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday that China and India “can and must play a role” in resolving the conflict.
Zelensky had proposed after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kyiv on August 23 that India can host the second summit for peace in Ukraine, given its leading role in the Global South, provided New Delhi signs on to the joint communique issued after the first peace summit in Switzerland in June. India sent a senior official to the first summit but didn’t endorse the joint communique, mainly because Russia wasn’t part of the meeting.
Last week, Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that Brazil, China and India can be possible intermediaries for peace talks with Ukraine, since he has “relations of trust and confidence” with the leaders of these countries. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia daily the same day that India can help in establishing a dialogue on Ukraine.
The relationship between Putin and Modi “allows for a line to be taken to obtain first-hand information from participants in the Ukrainian conflict”, Peskov said. He added Modi “communicates freely” with Putin, Zelensky and the US, and India has “a very good chance of using its weight” on the global stage and its “influence to encourage the Americans and Ukrainians to take the peaceful path of settlement”.
Peskov, however, noted there were no specific plans about such an approach. “There are no specific plans, and it is unlikely that they could exist now, because…we do not see any preconditions for negotiations now,” he said.
India has not publicly censured Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its leadership has consistently called for a return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue and a cessation of hostilities. Modi told Putin at their last meeting in July that talks can’t succeed under the shadow of the gun, and he told Zelensky last month that a solution to the conflict can’t be found without engaging Russia.