Germany believes India can use its long-standing ties with Russia to help end the war in Ukraine, which is affecting countries through rising grain and fertiliser prices, German envoy Jasper Wieck said on Wednesday.
Wieck said Germany and India have a “common interest” in ending Russia’s war against Ukraine as soon as possible because of its economic and security costs. However, he told a media briefing that Germany does not believe Russia is willing to end the war for the time being despite Ukraine’s readiness for a ceasefire.
“We would love to see India involved in bringing that war to an end,” Wieck said. “First of all, you are a very powerful country so your voice is heard by everyone…I am sure that the leadership of India can use its very good contacts with Russia to push that file.”
The envoy noted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the war should end, but added that it is difficult to judge who can be the best mediator to ensure a political process for stopping the fighting.
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“There are several candidates [as mediator] but I think it is better to have too many than too little. I would say that India, since it has these very established and long-term contacts and partnership with Russia on the one hand and at the same time is an interlocutor of Ukraine, you have all the possibilities to mediate and to bring in your diplomatic skills in bringing this war to an end,” he said.
India, which has refrained from publicly criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has also stayed away from any direct mediation. It has passed messages between the two sides and Modi has engaged both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to call for an end to the hostilities through dialogue and diplomacy.
As Moscow appears unwilling to end the war, the European Union (EU) will continue pressuring Russia by providing military, economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia to increase the costs of the conflict, Wieck said.
Besides claiming the lives of thousands of soldiers and civilians, the conflict has directly impacted the interests of countries such as India and Germany because of increasing prices of grains and fertilisers. “But it also impacts us geopolitically and it touches on our interests, particularly Indian interests, because Russia is gradually drawn more and more into the arms of China, because it depends on the support of China more and more,” he said.
While arguing that more countries should stop buying Russian oil to cut off funding for the war, Wieck acknowledged India’s need to secure energy supplies for its 1.4 billion people.
“We believe that the world energy market is huge enough to have alternative sources of import, [but] I also know that the situation has become more complicated [because of the West Asia conflict,” he said. “In the mid and longer term, Germany is a very loyal and strong supporter of India in transitioning to renewable energy, which would make India independent from all of these conflicts around the world and sanctions by whoever.”
Wieck also drew a distinction between EU sanctions, which are linked to European jurisdiction, and measures such as the Russia sanctions bill passed recently by the US Congress, which can impact countries and are extraterritorial in nature.
