Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has encouraged Australia and China to keep communication lines open.
Dr Jaishankar said communication was integral during conflicts and bloody border clashes between India and China.
"For me, diplomacy is about communication," he told the Lowy Institute on Tuesday.
"Shutting down talking, burning bridges ... I would not recommend it.
"At the end of the day, countries have to deal with each other and you have to find some way of keeping that going."
Dr Jaishankar also identified the "three C challenge" India and Australia had to work together to address - COVID, conflict and climate change.
The Indian minister said the second iteration of the Quad in 2017, which includes Australia, Japan and the United States, continues to work due to improvements in bilateral relationships.
Dr Jaishankar said the Australia-India relationship had the most developing to do, but was now moving ahead at pace.
"I'm pretty confident this relationship is going to go well," he said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended the bilateral relationship amid concerns India's failure to take a stronger stance against Russia undermined its commitment to democratic principles.
India has traditionally relied heavily on Russian arms imports.
"The Quad is functioning extremely well," Senator Wong said.
"The level of strategic trust and strategic consistency amongst Quad partners is deep and firm.
"I note Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi's public comments and we've welcomed them."
New Delhi has toed the line with both Moscow and Kyiv, calling for an end to the conflict.
But Prime Minister Modi went further and admonished Russia during a security summit in September, saying "today's era is not of war".
Dr Jaishankar told reporters in Canberra on Monday that his nation had a long-standing relationship with Russia after Western countries refused to sell New Delhi arms.
"We all in international politics deal with what we have," he said.
"We have been very clearly against the conflict in Ukraine. We believe that this conflict does not serve the interests of anybody."
Dr Jaishankar later told the Lowy Institute India had to balance the delicate situation with 20,000 Indian students having been caught up in the conflict.
"Extricating them required not just diplomacy in the normal sense, but having prime minister Modi call up (the Ukrainian and Russian presidents)," he said.
The external affairs minister added it was too early to determine whether authoritarianism was in retreat following united global action following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"This is a conflict that has gone in unanticipated directions," he said.
"If your first six months have been unpredictable I'm not sure you're in any position to reach a conclusion.
"I don't think anybody serious right now can predict where this conflict is going."
