Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI:External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his British counterpart Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke over the phone on August 16 and discussed Ukraine developments and other issues. “Appreciate the call from UK FS @ DavidLammy. Our discussions covered the recent Ukraine developments and other issues,” Jaishankar said in a post on X.
The conversation came a day after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held Summit meeting in Alaska over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Meanwhile, several European leaders on August 16 jointly pledged to continue support for Ukraine and maintain pressure on Russia until the war in Ukraine ends, reported Reuters.
The joint statement from leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was issued after Trump briefed them on his talks with Putin. It said the next step must be talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and that they were ready to work with Trump and Zelenskiy towards a three-way summit with European support.
The European statement – also signed by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and European Council President Antonio Costa – said Ukraine must have “ironclad” security guarantees to defend its territorial integrity. “It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force. “Our support to Ukraine will continue. We are determined to do more to keep Ukraine strong in order to achieve an end to the fighting and a just and lasting peace,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the heads of government of the Baltic and Nordic countries issued a joint statement, stressing that only Ukraine can decide its own future and reaffirming their “unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity”. No decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine, and no decisions on Europe without Europe, declared the eight leaders of Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Finland, and Sweden on Saturday in the joint statement. They underlined their steadfast support for Ukraine and their commitment to effortss aimed at ending the Ukraine crisis.
