India discusses grain, maritime security deals with Moscow, Kyiv: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar addressed the 62nd Munich Security Conference in Delhi on Sunday (October 4, 2026) on the theme ‘From New Delhi to a New Pace: Opportunities for Emerging and Middle Power Cooperation’. | Photo credit: Suhasini Haidar

India is going “beyond advocacy” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday (Oct 4, 2026), suggesting for the first time that New Delhi is involved in relaying messages between Moscow and Kyiv on Black Sea maritime security and grain export deals.

Speaking at an event by a German think tank, Mr Jaishankar responded to questions about India’s close ties with Moscow and its purchase of Russian oil by pointing out that Russia had “stood by India” in difficult times. In a speech on “developing and middle power cooperation”, the foreign minister focused on the global superpowers, the US and China. Calling the US today a “lonelier power” while China stands out as a “unique country”, he suggested that other countries could seek to form coalitions with each other to work on issues such as international peace and security, supply chain resilience and connectivity.

“We are having talks with both Russia and Ukraine (about the need for dialogue and diplomacy),” Mr Jaishankar said at the Munich meeting of leaders in New Delhi on Sunday (October 4). “We’re trying to be helpful, starting with the issue of maritime security in the Black Sea, but going beyond that to cover some of the immediate concerns that both of them have about grain exports, energy exports, non-aggression options. So those are ongoing talks,” he added.

Time-tested ties

Mr Jaishankar’s strong defense of India-Russia ties suggests New Delhi will not reduce its purchases of Russian oil, which currently account for more than 50% of India’s oil imports, even in the face of possible US sanctions under a new law passed on 18 September.

“Because (India,) Russia and before that the Soviet Union was a country that stood by us in many ways when our security, when our territorial integrity was threatened, and at a time when, you know, much of the world preferred to support a military regime alongside us,” he said, referring to Soviet support during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war and the liberation of Bangladesh.

Indian Peace Proposal

It is the first time Mr Jaishankar has revealed details of his discussions during recent visits to Moscow and Kiev and his talks with the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in France in June and has met Russian President Vladimir Putin twice in the past month, in Bishkek and New Delhi, where he publicly highlighted the need to move from “endless wars” to “an end to war”.

Mr Jaishankar’s comments at a session of the Munich Security Forum titled “From New Delhi to a New Pace: Opportunities for Emerging and Middle Power Cooperation” came a day after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andre Sybiha told reporters in Kiev that India had the “broadest” proposal of the four countries that offered to help resolve the conflict that began in February 2022 at the Russian forum in the February 2020 invasion of Russia. Putin also praised Mr. Modi’s “very good ideas for finding mutually acceptable solutions” to the conflict.

“The US is a lonelier power”

In his speech, the foreign minister cited the “changing global landscape” as a cause for concern. “The landscape today is primarily marked by a radical repositioning of the United States. A repositioning that is the posture of choice and where it has become a more solitary power in a way on purpose,” he said, adding that another feature of the “landscape” is “the rise of China, which sees itself as a unique country, which it is in a way…and we’re looking at very fierce competition that has led to any weapon.”

Later in the evening, Mr. Jaishankar hosted a dinner at the Red Fort for the dialogue participants, including German Foreign Minister Bernhard Kotsch, Cambodian Foreign Minister Meas Kim Heng, former British Foreign Secretary David Lamy and ambassadors of several countries, including the US, Canada and Germany.

Published – 04 Oct 2026 15:49 IST