Last week on Wednesday 21 August, 2024, PM Modi embarked on a significantly historic two-nation visit to Poland and Ukraine. The Prime Minister first landed in Poland, on August 21 and then he headed to Kyiv.
This was PM Modi’s first visit to the war-torn Ukraine since Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv, and was also the fist visit by an Indian PM to Ukraine since bilateral diplomatic relations were established 30 years ago.
During his day long visit to Ukraine, on Friday 23 August, 2024, PM Modi met with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy in the background of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. During the talks PM Modi personally offered New Delhi’s assistance at the highest level to help resolve the conflict.
“We say it very loudly and clearly that we support the respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, it’s our highest priority.” Modi said. He further said that India is ever ready to play an ‘active role’ in every effort to restore peace in Ukraine and he would even like to contribute personally to end the conflict.
At their first face-to-face meeting, PM Modi met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a warm hug that came barely six weeks after Modi had similarly hugged the leader of Ukraine’s arch-enemy, President Putin, and which was criticised by the US officials.
This show of personal bonding poses some rather bigger questions, i.e. firstly, whether India is treating both Russia and Ukraine equally and secondly, whether it has the diplomatic heft to get the on-going war stopped at the earliest?
As to the first question, PM Modi himself offered........