Jaishankar gives a strong reminder to Europe on Afghanistan

New Delhi, Apr 26: External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar on Tuesday highlighted the fallout of the chaotic withdrawal of western powers from Afghanistan and their silence on the challenges to the rules based order in Asia.

India's position on the conflict in Ukraine emphasises the urgent cessation of fighting and a return to diplomacy and dialogue, and stresses the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, the minister said at an interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue, the foreign ministry's flagship conference on geopolitics.

Jaishankar was responding to a question from the foreign minister of Norway Anniken Huitfeldt who said that Russia's aggression was an instance of an authoritarian state attack on a democracy. The minister also asked Jaishankar about India's role in defending free societies.

Jaishankar responded by indicating that European powers had not reacted to the challenges to the rules based order in Asia for almost a decade. He said that the West should remember what happened in Afghanistan less than a year back when an entire civil society was thrown under the bus by the world.

"When the rules-based order was under challenge in Asia, the advice we got from Europe is do more trade. At least we're not giving you that advice. In terms of Afghanistan, please show me which part of the rules-based order justified what the world did there," Jaishankar said.

On Ukraine, he said there is really nobody who wants to see this conflict. There will be no winners out of this conflict. Our position is that we all have to find some way of returning to diplomacy and dialogue.

And to do that, the fighting must stop.