EAM Jaishankar meets Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during BRICS summit

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and discussed issues of bilateral and global interests. Jaishankar, who is in South Africa to participate in a conclave of five-nation grouping BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), held talks with Lavrov on the sidelines of the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. “Good to meet FM Sergey Lavrov of Russia in Cape Town this morning on BRICS FMM sidelines. Our discussions covered bilateral matters, BRICS, G20 and SCO,” Jaishankar said in a tweet. India will hold the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and G-20 summits in July and September respectively. In the last few months, India has become a leading importer of discounted crude oil from Russia notwithstanding increasing disquiet in the West over the procurement in view of Russian invasion of Ukraine. India’s economic engagement with Russia has been on a major upswing in the last one year, largely due to its procurement of discounted Russian oil. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been pushing for resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy. On Wednesday, Jaishankar said these are still “early days” for conflict resolution between Ukraine and Russia as presently, the focus is on problems such as a grain corridor, nuclear issues and matters related to the exchange of prisoners of war. In an interview to DD India, Jaishankar noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) brings together five of the largest developing countries of the world, representing 41 per cent of the global population, 24 per cent of the global GDP and 16 per cent of the global trade Jaishankar is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with his other BRICS counterparts.