Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he will “share perspectives” on the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia during his visit to Kyiv this week, more than a month after he travelled to Moscow.
Modi departed for Poland on Wednesday and will visit Kyiv on Friday, the first trip to Ukraine by an Indian prime minister since diplomatic relations were established more than three decades back.
The trip follows Modi’s July 8-9 visit to Moscow which drew criticism from the US and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as it coincided with a lethal Russian strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Modi condemned the killing of innocent children in an implicit rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The short visit to Kyiv is seen by many Indian analysts as an attempt to control the damage from the Moscow trip and also a strategic balancing act at a time New Delhi has grown closer to the West, particularly Washington.
India’s diplomats reject that and say New Delhi’s ties with Russia and Ukraine are independent of each other and the trip builds on interactions between New Delhi and Kyiv across sectors.
“I look forward to the opportunity to … share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict,” Modi said in a statement on Wednesday before his departure. “As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region.”
India and Russia have been close friends since the days of the Soviet Union and New Delhi has not condemned Moscow’s attack on Ukraine, instead urging both sides to use dialogue and diplomacy to resolve their differences.
Russia became India’s top oil supplier since the war began as Indian refiners snapped up cheap Russian crude.
New Delhi has also remained engaged with Kyiv, with Modi meeting Zelensky on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy in June. They have also spoken several times by phone.
The prospect of India mediating to help end the war in Ukraine has been raised in diplomatic circles from time to time but New Delhi has appeared cagey, saying only that it is willing to offer any support to resolve the conflict peacefully.
“Contrary to widespread expectations, Modi’s visit to Warsaw and Kyiv may be less about a new Indian peace initiative on Ukraine,” C Raja Mohan of the Singapore-based Institute of South Asian Studies wrote in Wednesday’s Indian Express newspaper.
“President Vladimir Putin knows how to reach out to the US, which has the most leverage in the Ukraine war, and open negotiations when he finds it appropriate,” he wrote, adding that Modi’s trip was more about boosting New Delhi’s ties in Central Europe.