NSA Ajit Doval in Jeddah for two-day conference on Ukraine crisis

The conference, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is being attended by top security officials of around 40 countries

New Delhi: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Saturday joined his counterparts from several countries on the first day of a two-day conference in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah that is aimed at finding ways for a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict.

The conference, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is being attended by top security officials of around 40 countries. However, Russia has not been invited to it, according to diplomatic sources.

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US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and China’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui are among those attending the deliberations.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that India’s participation in the meeting would be in consonance with its long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy are the ways forward to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Doval arrived in Jeddah on Saturday morning.

Ahead of the high-level conference, Saudi Arabia said it is aimed at Riyadh’s attempt to contribute to reaching a solution that will result in permanent peace and to reduce the impact of the crisis.

“The government of the Kingdom looks forward that this meeting contributes to reinforcing dialogue and cooperation through the exchanging of views, coordination, and deliberations at the international level on ways to ensure a solution to the crisis through political and diplomatic means,” it said in a statement.

India has been maintaining that the Ukraine crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in-person talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima.

In the talks, Modi conveyed to Zelenskyy that India will do whatever possible to find a solution to the conflict.
On his part, Zelenskyy briefed the Indian side in detail on his peace formula and urged New Delhi to join in its implementation.

At a bilateral meeting with Russian President Putin on September 16 last year in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Modi said,

“Today’s era is not of war” and nudged the Russian leader to end the conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that it is “very important” that the world sees a fair and honest end to the Russian “aggression”.

“I am grateful to Saudi Arabia for this platform for negotiations. Recently, a meeting in the same format was held in Copenhagen. We are moving step by step towards the Global Peace Summit,” he said on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Liberating Ukrainian land from the occupiers means restoring full respect for international law and the UN Charter,” he added.

“I am grateful to all those who support the peace formula and have already joined the joint efforts for the full implementation of the Formula,” Zelenskyy said.

President Zelenskyy put forward a 10-point “peace plan” for ending the conflict that included punishing those responsible for the war crimes, withdrawing all Russian troops from Ukraine and restoring his country’s territorial integrity.
Under the plan, he also called for ensuring energy security, food security, and nuclear safety.