External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has stepped up India’s diplomatic outreach at the United Nations General Assembly, holding a series of high-level meetings focused on trade, technology, climate action, energy, defence, connectivity and wider geopolitical challenges. Jaishankar’s engagements with European partners including the Netherlands, Finland and Slovenia put India-EU cooperation, the proposed India-EU FTA, manufacturing, energy and defence ties in focus. Discussions also covered the Ukraine conflict, technological challenges and commitments linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s international engagements.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put India-Russia energy ties under fresh international scrutiny, calling on India, China and Turkey to stop energy trade with Russia as a way to pressure Moscow to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Zelenskyy argued that Russia depends heavily on energy sales to major buyers including India. He said cutting that trade could force Moscow to stop fighting.