In a telephone conversation held on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan following the bloody attack in Pahalgam in April, TASS reports.
The two diplomats agreed on the need for political and diplomatic solutions, with Lavrov emphasizing the importance of the Simla Agreement (1972) and the Lahore Declaration (1999) as the basis for future dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad.
A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry indicates that broader cooperation between Russia and India was also discussed.
The conversation took place against the backdrop of growing tensions in the region. On April 22, gunmen opened fire in the tourist town of Pahalgam, killing 25 Indian citizens and one Nepali and injuring dozens.
Indian authorities claim that the Lashkar-e-Taiba group was behind the attack, with suspicions of Pakistani inter-agency intelligence involvement.
In response, India took a number of diplomatic measures: it reduced the staff of its embassy in Pakistan, suspended a water-sharing agreement, expelled military advisers from the Pakistani embassy, and suspended the issuance of visas to Pakistani citizens.
During the conversation, Lavrov and Jaishankar also reviewed the schedule of upcoming high-level meetings between the two countries.