Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Chakner said India has the ability to pressure Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine and play an “important role” in efforts to achieve peace, although ultimately Russian President Vladimir Putin must stop “atrocities”.
Chakna also said that Estonia is organizing a Ukraine recovery conference in 2027 and expressed hope that India will also participate in the reconstruction process of the war-affected country.
On whether India can play a role in bringing peace to the region, the minister told Press Trust of India (PTI) in an interview that Russia has been waging an aggressive war against Ukraine for more than four years and noted that “India can end the conflict by putting more pressure on Russia or talking to Russia”.
“But honestly, the only person who can end this war now is President Vladimir Putin. For Europe and Estonia, Russia is a very direct threat. We don’t want any war in Europe, but unfortunately we have,” he said.
Chalkner said that since both Ukraine and Europe want peace, any pressure on Russia to change its stance and goals would be welcome.
Referring to the Ukraine Renewal Conference, he said the event would bring together world leaders, donors and private companies.
He asserted that the reconstruction of Ukraine would be Europe’s biggest project since the Marshall Plan after World War II, “and I hope India will be a part of it too.”
The Marshall Plan was a United States initiative established in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. After the end of World War II in Europe, the United States transferred $13.3 billion to economic recovery projects in 17 European countries.
Speaking to a group of visiting Indian journalists here, Chakna claimed that Russia was in a “precarious position” in the war against Ukraine and that its economy was already weakening due to sanctions imposed on Moscow.
“For us, Russia was, is and will be the main security threat because we saw President Vladimir Putin launch a war against Georgia in Europe in 2008 and there was a very weak response in the western part of the world and globally so that 20 percent of Georgia remains occupied,” he said.
“Putin challenged the next country in 2014 – Ukraine,” the minister said.
He explained that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine began with the occupation of Crimea in 2014, not 2022 as is generally believed.
Chakna said Putin made a “huge misjudgment” in 2022.
“He was convinced that within six days he would overthrow the Ukrainian government and bring Ukraine under his control, but for four years he has been waging this all-out war and committing all these atrocities,” he said.
The minister added: “We think very much like the Ukrainians, not only for geopolitical reasons, but we don’t want any war in Europe, but we do.”
“We are all affected… we know exactly how to talk to Russia and we know we have to be very clear about where the red lines are and what miscalculations can occur,” he said.
Chakna admitted that from India’s perspective, the situation may be different because India historically has a different relationship with Russia and because India is a large country with different interests.
Estonia’s foreign minister said Europe now sees Russia as a “direct military and political threat.”
He said this was not about Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland, but about the European security architecture.
Chakna said that India and Estonia share the principle of territorial integrity and support for the United Nations Charter.
“What we have in common with India is the principle of territorial integrity and we talk more and more about the UN Charter. Both India and Estonia are very clear about this,” he said.
Chakna claimed that the Russian economy was weakened by sanctions and said recent deep strikes inside Russia had also caused damage.
“We need peace talks with Russia…Putin is not ready for real negotiations. Putin should change the strategic objectives and maybe under Ukraine’s leadership we can have some kind of real negotiations, just starting with a ceasefire,” Chakna said.
He said India could play an “important role” in this regard through its economic ties with Russia.
Russia and Ukraine have stepped up long-range drone and missile strikes in recent months, even as diplomatic efforts to seek a negotiated solution to the conflict continue.
This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
