Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said India has gone through a very “complicated and challenging phase” in negotiating its diplomatic stand on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Because of its multiple interests with other countries, it is ‘in a kind of difficult position in which even the smallest mistake can have dire consequences.’
He was replying to a question during an interaction here after the inauguration of a three-day photo exhibition on ‘Ukraine Untold (Glimpses)’. “India has gone through a very complex and challenging period in negotiations on its stand on the Ukraine-Russia crisis. There is no doubt that India in its very first statement was not ready to say anything that would have troubled Russia.
“He will have a tough reason to defend and I am sure the talks he is going to have in New Delhi will be very interesting,” Tharoor said on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s possible visit to India this week. Regarding India’s stand on the conflict, the Congress MP said, “We have been more vocal in reiterating our principles in our statements while absent from the vote at the United Nations (on Ukraine crisis) and our diplomacy has taken into account those diverse interests.” which we have to take care of.
“We are members of the Quad and we do not want the US to lose sight of the Indo-Pacific and focus solely on Europe,” he said. “We had to evacuate 23,000 Indian nationals, mostly students, in the first few weeks from Ukraine,” Tharoor said. Therefore, because of all these interests, we are in a difficult position, in which even a small mistake can lead to bad consequences.’