'On the Same Page': Russia, India Share Approach to Syrian Settlement

Russia and India are largely "on the same page" in relation to Syria, a senior Indian diplomat said.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Russia and India's approaches to the settlement of the Syrian crisis are similar, India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Tuesday.

"At the conceptual level, both the Russians and us agree that the Syrian issue should be resolved through political and diplomatic means and thorough the intra-Syrian dialogue," he said at a briefing.

Jaishankar stressed that Russia and India are largely "on the same page" in relation to Syria.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the country’s government fighting a number of opposition factions and radical Islamist groups, including Islamic State (Daesh in Arabic) and al-Nusra Front.

Russia, which has outlawed and designated Daesh a terrorist organization, has been conducting airstrikes against the group's positions in Syria since September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.