Latest News | NNNNUkraine Crisis Has Its Roots in Post-Soviet Politics: Jaishankar

New Delhi, Feb 22 (PTI) The Ukraine crisis has its roots in post-Soviet politics, the expansion of NATO and the dynamics between Russia and Europe, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

In an interactive session at a think-tank in Paris, he said the world today is in the midst of "multiple crises" and these developments have generated new challenges to the international order.

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Jaishankar also extensively delved into fast-expanding Indo-French ties and said India looks at France as a "trusted" partner in countering myriad security challenges from the seabed to space and from cyber to oceans.

"I can assert with genuine confidence that it (Indo-French ties) is the strongest now since our journey as an independent nation began 75 years ago," he said.

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"Through the tumult of our times, India's relations with France have continued to move forward on a steady and clear course. It is a relationship that is free from sudden shifts and surprises that we sometimes see in other cases," Jaishankar added.

The external affairs minister said there is a great trust and sense of confidence in the relationship in India.

He also referred to France showing an understanding of India's "strategic compulsions" after its nuclear tests in 1998.

"French support played an important role in India getting an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 2008 to resume international cooperation in civil nuclear energy," he added.

Asked to compare the Ukraine crisis with the situation in Taiwan, Jaishankar said different problems have different histories, different contexts and players and transposing issues of one theatre to another can be misleading.

"Both are products of very complex histories of that particular region. In the case of Ukraine, a lot of it derives from the post-Soviet politics, the expansion of NATO, the dynamics between Russia and Europe, and Russia and the West broadly," he said.

"I think, in the case of Taiwan, it is a product of what happened in Chinese history and what happened the way the Cold War and other developments played out in Asia," he said.

On the eastern Ladakh border row with China, Jaishankar said both sides held 13 rounds of military talks and as a result of that significant headway has been made in many of the friction points.

At the same time, he said there are some friction points that remained to be resolved.

Jaishankar said India is absolutely clear that it will not agree to any change in the status quo and will not accept any attempt to change the Line of Actual Control unilaterally.

"So however complex it is, however long it takes, however difficult it is, that clarity is what guides us and I would say other than optimism, it is also very important to have perseverance," he said replying to a question on whether he was optimistic about the resolution of the row.

Asked about India's views on trilateral security grouping AUKUS (Australia, the UK and the US), Jaishankar did not give a direct reply.

He said it is important that democratic countries with shared values and interests work together with a cooperative spirit. PTI MPB https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail

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(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)