New Delhi: The widening of the conflict is a cause of “great concern” for India as the hostilities have driven up oil prices and affected the country’s exports, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
A conflict anywhere creates problems everywhere, Jaishankar said in the context of the wars in Ukraine and West Asia during a question-and-answer session after delivering the Sardar Patel memorial lecture on governance.
The situation in West Asia has taken a turn for the worse in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7 last year and the Israeli response to the assault, Jaishankar said. “Then we saw what happened in Gaza, and now you’re seeing it in Lebanon,” he said.
Besides the “exchange between Israel and Iran”, there were the attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea, he said.
“This is actually costing us. It’s not [as if] somebody is neutral and you benefit,” Jaishankar said, noting that shipping and insurance rates and oil prices had gone up, while exports and foreign trade had been affected.
The stock markets had tanked on Thursday after Iran carried out a missile attack on Israel, he said.
Iran’s missile attack was a response to Israeli air strikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the earlier assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iranian officials have said. The region is currently on edge as it awaits Israel’s response to the Iranian missile strikes.
Jaishankar noted how globalisation has resulted in developments in one region having a wider impact and said: “Conflicts can be opportunistically used, I don’t deny that. But I think in a globalised world which is so tight, conflict anywhere actually creates problems everywhere.”
He added, “Honestly today, whether it is the conflict in Ukraine…or in the Middle East, these are big factors of instability [and] concern. I think the entire world, including us, we are worried about it and we are trying to see at least where we can make a difference and do what we can.”
India has consistently called for an end to hostilities in the context of the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts and a return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy to find lasting solutions.
In the case of the Israel-Hamas conflict, New Delhi has also called for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, the protection of the civilian population and the resumption of humanitarian assistance.
India has watched the escalation of tensions in recent days with growing concern as West Asia is home to nine million Indian expatriates. There are 30,000 Indians in Israel and 10,000 Indians in Iran, according to the external affairs ministry.
