India is set to walk the diplomatic and strategic tightrope yet again as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on an official visit to war-torn Ukraine from August 22, marking the first visit by an Indian PM to Ukraine after establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992.
While India has till now desisted from openly criticizing Russia for the Ukraine invasion, its standard position is seeking a resolution through “dialogue and diplomacy”.
On Monday, “The conflict is ongoing and we believe that the resolution to this conflict can only come through dialogue and diplomacy,” Tanmaya Lal, secretary (West) in the foreign ministry, said on Monday. He said “India has consistently advocated for diplomacy and dialogue to reach a negotiated settlement.”
Modi’s visit to Kiev will take place just about one-and-a-half month after his visit to Russia where he was welcomed with a warm bear-hug by Russian President Vladimir Putin—in an enduring image that went viral globally and was a subject of discussion even in the NATO meet in Washington DC.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had described the Modi-Putin meeting as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.” On the day that Modi met Putin, Russian missiles had hit civilian areas in Ukraine killing many people.
After his Moscow meeting with President Putin, PM Modi had said: “The temperature sometimes falls below zero in Russia but the temperature is always above zero in India-Russia relations… Russia remains India’s trusted friend in any weather.”
An official release on Monday said the PM’s engagements in Kyiv “will touch a range of aspects of bilateral ties including political, trade, economic, investments, education, cultural, people-to-people exchanges, humanitarian assistance and others”.
Interestingly, Modi’s visit to Ukraine will coincide with the Russian Navy chief Admiral Aleksandr Alekseyevich Moiseyev’s ongoing India visit.
On Saturday, Admiral Moiseyev’s official engagements included meeting his Indian counterpart Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, India’s defence secretary, the Indian Air Force chief and the National Maritime Security Coordinator of India.
Modi’s visit to Ukraine will be preceded by his visit to Poland, a NATO member, in what will be an Indian PM’s first visit to Poland in the past 45 years.
