New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor admitted to having misjudged India’s neutral stand on the Russia-Ukraine crisis when the war broke out back in 2022, saying ‘I am still wiping the egg off my face’.
Participating in the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Tuesday at the session, ‘Waging Peace: Looking Back to Look Ahead,’ the Thiruvananthapuram MP said India’s stand enabled PM Modi a position to engage with both Ukraine and Russia without hostility, The Indian Express reported.
‘I am still wiping the egg off my face because I am one person in the parliamentary debate who actually criticised the Indian position at the time back in February 2022,’ Tharoor reportedly said.
When the war broke out, Tharoor urged India to denounce Russian invasion of Ukraine citing violations of the UN Charter, the sovereignty of Ukraine and ‘inviolability of borders’.
Three years later, even as the efforts are on to bring in peace, Tharoor called India’s position a balanced diplomacy, which gave PM Modi a unique position to engage with both parties.
Praising India’s stand Tharoor said: ‘Clearly, the policy has meant that India has a prime minister who can hug both the president of Ukraine and the president in Moscow two weeks apart and be accepted in both places.’
He pointed out that along with India’s geographical distance its historical commitment to neutrality made it a credible mediator.
‘India is in a position where it can make a difference to a lasting peace if it was so required in ways that very few countries would be able to,’ he was quoted as saying.
Tharoor, a former Minister of State for External Affairs, said India could contribute peacekeepers in the aftermath of Russia and Ukraine coming out with a peace deal.
He pointed to India’s role in peacekeeping as Russia will not accept European peacekeepers belonging to NATO countries, making it necessary to look beyond Europe for peacekeepers.
Clarifying that he was putting forth his personal view, Tharoor said: ‘If it were necessary and if there was an agreed peace, I think there would be some willingness to consider.’