New Delhi: The Lithuanian Ambassador to India Diana Mickeviciene, who is currently in India for the G20 summit, said India has played a positive role in the Russia-Ukraine war. "Mr Modi has himself told Putin that this era is not the era of war," she during an exclusive conversation with ETV Bharat.
Highlighting that India and Lithuania share an 'excellent relationship', the Ambassador said, "As we speak, India is establishing its embassy in Lithuania. India has become a very important global player, and we are happy to see India play a positive role in all aspects of global affairs, including the G20 presidency this year."
Speaking about the growing friendship between China and Russia amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict, the Ambassador further said despite being a small country, Lithuania has 'not submitted to pressure from China, and has been punished for it' and that the country has been 'pressurised to take stands that are not in our interest'.
"I was Ambassador to Beijing but I had to leave because we had a very major disagreement on how things should function. China was trying to refigure and re-confine sovereignty. We may be a small country, but we could not do as they said for our sovereignty," the Ambassador said. Further speaking about the impact of the Ukraine conflict on Lithuania, a close neighbour to the war-torn nation, the Ambassador said her country stands firmly with Ukraine even if it costs them economic or geographical instability.
"We have a history occupied by Russian invasion twice, we have seen very aggressive Russian behaviour. Had Ukraine fallen, another one of the countries would have been next. We stand with Ukraine -- it's defending its own sovereignty and that of several other countries like us. We are ready to bear the brunt but Ukraine has to stay on the map," she added.
Opining that it cannot be deliberated yet as to how long the war will last, Mickeviciene said Russia has already lost. "Russia's strategy to take over Ukraine in a short time span has failed. But if Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine. If Putin stops fighting, there will be no war. The war is proving costly for everyone and it needs to be stopped," the Ambassador reiterated.
Speaking about the similarities between the Lithuanian language and Sanskrit, the ambassador said Lithuanian has been a very close sister language to Sanskrit for unknown reasons. "It is a linguistic scientific fact. These two languages are included in several languages that my generation has learned as a part of Indo-European languages in terms of paradigms of linguistic development. It is a very under-researched relationship," she said.
Against this backdrop, the Ambassador asserted that her country has done some research and come up with a collection of identical words -- which sound and mean the same in both Lithuanian and Sanskrit. "There are several such words but based on the initial research, we have added 108, which is considered a sacred number in our country. The number can be much higher since the structure of both languages is similar," the Ambassador said.
She concluded the conversation with a few lines in Hindi, praising India and its culture, and asserting that India and Lithuania are good friends and always remain so.
