- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a visit that would keep the international diplomatic establishment interested, Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova on Monday (10) reached India where she sought a visit by prime minister Narendra Modi to her country which is currently engaged in a war with Russia.
She added that the South Asian nation should be more involved in resolving the crisis that started in February 2022 following Russia’s military invasion of the east European nation.
India has not condemned Russia over the war and intensified its oil diplomacy with that country even while taking a non-aligned approach to the situation. It has also abstained from voting on the war in the United Nations a number of times although Modi last year told Russian president Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan that this is not an era of war, earning the west’s accolade.
Speaking to CNBC TV18 in an interview, the 39-year-old Dzhaparova said that it was expected India would invite Ukrainian officials to take part in the G20 events scheduled on its soil in September this year while adding that New Delhi should intensify political dialogue with Kyiv.
During her four-day visit to India, Dzhaparova is expected to meet officials from India’s ministry of external affairs, including minister of state for external affairs Meenakshi Lekhi. She will also meet India’s deputy national security adviser Vikram Misri .
Dzhaparova, whose visit to India is also the first by a Ukrainian minister since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, also told reporters in New Delhi that India should be pragmatic in securing its resources, including energy and defence equipment.
Sources in the Indian government said the Ukrainian diplomat is likely to discuss the current situation in her country and global issues of mutual interest with India’s external affairs ministry officials.
According to a report by India’s Hindu newspaper, Dzhaparova would call on New Delhi to send a “strong message for peace” to Putin, who is set to visit the Asian country in July for a SCO summit.
He will visit India again in September for the G20 summit.
New Delhi-based think tank Indian Council of World Affairs said on Twitter that on Tuesday (11), Dzhaparova would deliver a talk called Russia’s War in Ukraine: Why the World Should Care.
Rajeswari Rajagopalan, director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, told Al Jazeera said she believes India will use the Ukrainian minister’s visit to discuss issues that include “food security, energy security and a whole range of fertiliser shortages”.
The Hindu also cited diplomatic sources as saying Ukraine has sought more humanitarian aid from India, including drugs, medical and energy equipment to repair power infrastructure that have been damaged during the ongoing war.
In October, Russia started an assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, hitting thermal and hydropower plants and the electrical grid. The attacks affected about 60 per cent of Ukraine’s power plants and more than 40 per cent of its high-voltage grid infrastructure.
Ukrainians experienced rolling blackouts from October to February as a result.
On India hosting the Ukrainian first deputy foreign minister, Rajagopalan said New Delhi is ‘trying to play neutral’.
“India is trying to play neutral,” Rajagopalan told Al Jazeera. “India hosted the Russian foreign minister, [Sergey] Lavrov, a few months ago, and now we are hosting the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister.”
(With Reuters inputs)
