During a landmark visit to war-torn Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that New Delhi is ready to play an active role “as a friend” in efforts to achieve peace and underlined the need for talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Modi’s comments came as he sat alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday after the two leaders held talks that focused on the conflict that erupted more than two years ago following Russia’s invasion.
"The road to resolution can only be found through dialogue and diplomacy. And we should move in that direction without losing any time. Both sides should sit together to find a way out of this crisis," Modi said.
The first visit by an Indian prime minister to Ukraine came six weeks after Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Modi denied that India, which has come under criticism from Kyiv and its Western allies for failing to condemn the Russian aggression, has taken a neutral position on the war. “We have taken a side, and we stand firmly for peace," he said.
He also said that India supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
Before heading into talks, Modi and Zelenskyy visited a memorial commemorating Ukrainian children who have been killed during the conflict. “Children in every country deserve to live in safety,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media platform X. “We must make this possible.”
Modi said, “My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives.”
Modi’s visit to Moscow on July 8 and 9 coincided with Russian missile attacks on a children’s hospital and other targets in Ukraine that killed civilians. It led to a sharp rebuke from Zelenskyy, who said it was “a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts” to see the Indian leader hug Putin “on such a day.”
On Friday, Zelenskyy called Modi’s visit “friendly” and symbolic — it came a day before Ukraine’s Independence Day.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters that much of the discussions between Modi and Zelenskyy focused on the conflict.
“To my mind we perhaps brought up points or flagged issues which they [Ukraine] may or may not have been cognizant of here. There was a sense that this is a very complex issue but there could be multiple ways of approaching peace,” he said.
In Ukraine, the visit by a close ally of Moscow is seen as part of a diplomatic bid to get wider backing from countries that have taken a neutral position on the conflict.
New Delhi "really has a certain influence" over Moscow, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president's office told Reuters.
Modi’s trip, analysts say, is also a signal that although India has not joined Western countries in isolating Russia, it wants to build independent ties with both nations.
In a bid to boost economic and trade links that have suffered since the war erupted, India and Ukraine signed four agreements on increasing cooperation in sectors such as agriculture and community development projects.
“This visit is all about forging a relationship with Ukraine and giving a message that India would like to befriend every country. It is concerned about the war, especially its impact on the energy and food security of many countries,” said Chintamani Mahapatra, founder of the Kalinga Institute for Indo Pacific Studies in New Delhi.
Analysts also pointed out that Modi’s trip to Ukraine will have no bearing on New Delhi’s warm relationship with the Kremlin. Trade ties with Moscow have burgeoned as India imports record quantities of Russian oil while defense ties are crucial for a country still heavily dependent on Russian weaponry.
“As Russia’s engagement with China does not impact its relationship with India, Indian equations with Ukraine will not change its equation with Russia,” foreign policy analyst C. Raja Mohan wrote in The Indian Express newspaper. Moreover, he pointed out that if New Delhi wants to play peacemaker, it must engage with the “other side.”
Before arriving in Ukraine, Modi visited Poland, where Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed optimism that India could play an important role in bringing an end to the war.
“I am very glad that the prime minister has confirmed his readiness to personally engage in bringing about a peaceful, just and speedy end to the war,” Tusk told reporters Thursday.
