Jaishankar Urges Diplomacy, Black Sea Shipping Protection

At the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Atlanta, hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, India’s S. Jaishankar urged diplomacy over military solutions and called for protecting freedom of navigation and civilian shipping. He said India had discussed with Russia, Europe and Ukraine ways to reduce attacks on Black Sea shipping, restore grain exports and address attacks on energy infrastructure, while noting the difficulty of defining protected energy sites. Jaishankar warned that shipping disruptions threaten the supply and affordability of fuel, food and fertilizers, disproportionately harming the Global South, and called for diversified, transparent supply chains, less politicised markets and stronger alternative connectivity. He said conflicts, pandemics and climate events threaten economic resilience and cautioned against overlooking terrorism. On the sidelines, he met counterparts from Russia, Poland, South Korea, Canada and other countries to discuss Ukraine, regional security, bilateral cooperation, trade and multilateral issues; the meeting also addressed maritime and food security.