Giving  paramount importance to its national interests, India has been sensibly walking a tightrope on the Ukraine crisis. Enjoying good relations with the US, Russia and the European Union (EU), New Delhi has done well to adopt a pragmatic approach that can stand it in good stead no matter how the situation develops from here on. India has been holding its ground despite relentless pressure to take sides. Rather than toeing the US line to hit out at Russia, India has been advocating ‘constructive diplomacy’ to resolve the imbroglio. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has rightly observed that the crisis has its roots in post-Soviet politics, the expansion of NATO and the dynamics between Russia and Europe.

Ukraine is banking on NATO membership and stronger ties with EU to stand up to its neighbor. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Kyiv to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed after seizing it from Ukraine in 2014, drop its bid to join NATO and partially demilitarize. However, these terms are not acceptable to Ukraine and the West, which considers the annexation of Crimea as a violation of international law.

Since 2014, around 14,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s fears that it will be hemmed in by the US and its allies once Ukraine enters the NATO club, leading to greater instability in the region, are not unfounded. Though there is no dispute that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity ought to be respected by one and all, Russia’s genuine apprehensions also must be allayed. Both nations, along with the international community, should go back to the Minsk Agreements of 2014-15 and give peace a chance by working out a mutually acceptable framework to end the hostilities. An immediate de-escalation of tensions, factoring in the security concerns of all countries concerned, is the need of the hour to prevent a war that can have far-reaching, disastrous consequences in geopolitical and geoeconomic terms.

(Tribune, India)