India's 3-point plan: shipping, grain and energy in Russia-Ukraine talks

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said India is in discussions with Russia, Ukraine and Europe on three aspects of the conflict, protecting civilian shipping and seafarers, restoring grain exports from the Black Sea and a “non-attack on energy”, and is coordinating the effort with the United States. Speaking to a group of Indian reporters in Atlanta on Saturday at the end of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, EAM Jaishankar set out the three elements. “We’ve had discussions with Russia. We’ve had discussions with Europe. We’ve had discussions with Ukraine also about three aspects of the current conflict: one, not to attack civilian shipping and seafarers; the second, to find a way by which the grain exports from both Russia and Ukraine… find a way of restoring that flow because that flow has cut down very sharply in the Black Sea, and the third is with regard to energy,” he said. He described the energy element as the hardest.

#WATCH | Atlanta, US: On the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, EAM S Jaishankar says, "We've had discussions with Russia, Europe and Ukraine about three aspects of the current conflict. One, not to attack civilian shipping and seafarers. The second, to find a way by which the grain exports from both Russia and Ukraine—these are two major exporters of grain for the global markets—can be restored, because that flow has cut down very sharply in the Black Sea. And the third is with regard to energy. Non-attack on energy is probably the most complicated piece because it means different things to the different players. There is energy infrastructure itself. To some, it would mean a refinery; to some, it would mean grids. There would be issues relating to ships carrying fuel. So, we have been trying to see if we can get them together to address these issues..."

— ANI (@ANI) November 1, 2026

He declined to go into specifics. “Beyond that, in terms of details, state of play, etc., I don’t think I’d be in a position to share that publicly,” he said. He said that at the G20 the overall message from India was that “there are no military solutions” to the two major conflicts with global ramifications, and that “we have to find a diplomatic pathway, and of course we have been active ourselves in that regard.”