India Wednesday said that it supports an all-inclusive Syrian-led process to chart out the future of the violence-ravaged country and stressed that it “stands fully prepared to play its part” in the Geneva II peace process in any manner required of it.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, addressing the UN-backed Geneva II conference in Montreux, Switzerland, also reiterated India’s stand that there can be no military solution to the Syrian crisis that has led to the deaths of more than 120,000 people.

“India’s stand on various resolutions in the Security Council and General Assembly has been in support of efforts to bring about an end to violence by all parties,” he said.

Khurshid said India fully backs the Geneva II talks and wished all participants successful talks “resulting in meaningful resolution of the conflict”.

“Sustained peace and stability in the region is in our common interest,” he said.

He also said that “ultimately, it is the Syrian parties themselves who have to chart out their own future and we will be watching this process very carefully as they begin their discussions two days later in Geneva”.

Khurshid said the Syrian parties have “shown great courage in coming to the negotiating table. As a next step, I would like to express my earnest hope that they will be able to show the required flexibility in resolving their differences in a spirit of reconciliation and come to pragmatic conclusions that can be implemented on the ground, in the best interest of the Syrian people who are undergoing tremendous suffering on account of the conflict”.

He mentioned that India has supplied essential food items to Syria last year and also pledged $2 million to the United Nations Syrian Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (UN-SHARP).

As part of international effort to destroy Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons, India has offered technical expertise to the Organization for Protection of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and also offered a financial contribution of US$one million, he said.

  india, Khurshid, Syrian peace process