NSA Ajit Doval visits Jeddah to attend Saudi Arabia-hosted Ukraine peace talks
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has arrived in Jeddah to participate in a summit of national security advisers and other officials being hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Doval was welcomed at the Jeddah Airport by Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Suhel Khan, and Consul General Mohammed Shahid Alam.
“Shri Ajit Doval, NSA arrived in Jeddah to take part in National Security Advisors’ meeting on Ukraine. He was welcomed at Jeddah Airport by Ambassador Dr Suhel Khan and Consul General Mohd Shahid Alam,” the Indian Embassy in Riyadh said on Twitter.
The meeting is being organised in the coastal city of Jeddah to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plan for peace amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.
The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday confirmed India’s participation in the summit.
“India will participate in this event and our participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
“Yes, India has been invited to a meeting being hosted by Saudi Arabia on Ukraine in Jeddah,” Bagchi said while replying to a question at a press briefing of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov as saying: “Russia will keep an eye on this meeting” but would need “to fully understand what goals are being set.”
The Wall Street Journal, on July 29 first reported on the summit citing “diplomats involved in the discussion”, and said the talks would take place on August 5 and 6, in the city of Jeddah, with some 30 countries attending.
WSJ also said that Ukrainian and Western officials are hopeful that the efforts could conclude in a peace summit later this year where global leaders would sign up to shared principles for resolving the war.
For the Jeddah summit, the 30 invitees include Chile, Egypt, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zambia, according to WSJ.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday that officials from several countries would take part in the Saudi Arabian summit but did not say when or in which city the meeting will be held, reported Al Jazeera.
Yermak wrote on Telegram, that discussions will take place on the Ukrainian Peace Formula, which “contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world”.
“We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis because the war is taking place on our land,” Al Jazeera quoted Yermak as saying.
Regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India has always maintained that the conflict must be resolved by dialogue and diplomacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also said, “India is ready to do whatever it can for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014. The invasion has killed tens of thousands on both sides. Russian forces have been accused of mass civilian casualties and of torturing captured Ukrainian soldiers.