New Delhi: Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar will visit Russia on 8 November to visit his counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss current bilateral relations and the international agenda of the two countries.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the visit Thursday, as India continues to urge the country to return to the path of diplomacy to resolve the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Jaishankar had also said that targeting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths was not acceptable in any part of the world, a day after Moscow launched missiles over parts of Ukraine, including its capital city Kyiv.
India so far has held off directly condemning Russia for its “military operation” in Ukraine, though has maintained that the conflict was in nobody’s interest.
The country has also ramped up oil imports from Russia, data showed Thursday, as volumes were at an all-time high of 23 percent from 19 percent the previous month. Imports from the Middle East declined to 56.4% from 59%, the data showed.
Meanwhile, Zakharova on Thursday also urged the West to tell Ukraine to abandon plans for the possible use of a “dirty bomb” and to refrain from nuclear blackmail.
“Radiation has no borders,” she said, adding, “It does not need passports, visas or permissions. It cannot be sanctioned and prevented from crossing the border. It is much more insidious and does not ask anyone’s permission to penetrate anywhere and critically affect people’s health.”
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