S Jaishankar in Poland pushes strategic ties, urges diplomacy on Ukraine

Warsaw,UPDATED: Sep 4, 2026 21:44 IST

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held wide-ranging talks in Poland on Friday with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski, with discussions covering trade and investment, space, digital technology, AI, semiconductors, defence, energy and education, along with major global conflicts including Ukraine and West Asia.

Jaishankar, who arrived in Warsaw from Kyiv, also met Polish President Karol Nawrocki. He said their conversation focused on the positive trajectory of the India-Poland Strategic Partnership, and that they exchanged views on the Ukraine conflict, Middle East/West Asia, IMEC and the G20.

During his talks with Sikorski, Jaishankar said the two sides reviewed progress under the Joint Action Plan 2024-28. The discussions covered trade and investment, space, digital, AI, semiconductors, defence, education, shipping, mining and energy, people-to-people ties, culture and multilateral cooperation. He said he was confident that implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union would lead to even closer bilateral cooperation.

Addressing a joint press meet with Sikorski, Jaishankar said he had discussed complex global challenges, including supply chain resilience and food, fuel and fertiliser security. He said, ‘The Deputy Prime Minister and I also understandably discussed some major global and regional issues; notable among them is the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year... I myself have just come here from Kyiv.’

On the Ukraine war, Jaishankar said, ‘India believes that endless war must give way to an end to war. These are wars without winners. Every additional day means more death, more destruction, more loss to the parties themselves, and more cost to the rest of the world.’ Recalling that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had voiced this concern publicly, he added, ‘Our efforts must therefore focus on promoting dialogue and diplomacy. We must each do what we can in whichever way we believe could be most effective and support the efforts of others to bring this conflict to an end. This is India’s strong conviction, and we are acting on it.’

Replying to questions, Jaishankar said India had been in continuous touch with both Ukraine and Russia. ‘What we are trying to do is to see if there are ideas and suggestions which can be developed in some way in which they will contribute to the mitigation, ideally, the cessation of the conflict,’ he said. On India’s purchases of Russian oil, he said the solution to the conflict lay in negotiations, not trade. ‘This war is not going to end... not because somebody chose to buy or not buy oil or alumina or fertilisers or metals and minerals. It will end when there is diplomacy, when there is dialogue and when there is negotiation. So, I think let’s diagnose the problem right,’ he said.

Jaishankar said he also discussed the ongoing conflict in the Gulf, the situation in West Asia and developments in the Indo-Pacific. He noted that the world was facing multiple wars as well as serious challenges related to the availability of food, fuel and fertiliser, and said supply chain resilience was an additional concern. He said that as political democracies, market economies and open societies, India and Poland could work together to shape important global debates, and added that their record of working closely in the UN and other multilateral forums reflected that convergence.

He said the two sides had also reviewed the action plan agreed during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Poland two years ago. ‘We are working on agreements and many other domains, including cybersecurity, space, clean coal, classified information, critical minerals, etc. And I’m confident that they will add both texture and substance to our ties,’ he said. On people-to-people exchanges, he announced that the second edition of the Jam Saheb Memorial Youth Exchange Programme would take place in October.

Referring to India’s growing ties with the European Union, Jaishankar said the FTA would open up immense economic opportunities for both countries. ‘As a key member of the European Union, Poland naturally stands to gain in that process,’ he said, adding that he and Sikorski discussed how both sides could make the best use of this new scenario. He also said that as the world moves towards increasing multipolarity, India sees the European Union as an important pole and views the growing relationship as part of an ongoing global restructuring.

On the movement of workers, Jaishankar said a global economy required a global workforce and that India strongly supported legal mobility. ‘In fact, with a lot of countries, including in Europe, we have concluded bilateral agreements precisely for that purpose. So, we do not support illegal migration or mobility. We do not support irregular migration or mobility,’ he said. Later, he met the India-Poland Parliamentary Group and shared perspectives on building a contemporary India-Poland relationship, while also discussing regional developments in the wider context of bilateral ties with the EU.

The visit underlined India and Poland’s push to deepen their strategic partnership across a wide range of sectors, while also reflecting shared discussions on major international conflicts, economic cooperation and people-to-people links.

With PTI Inputs

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