The Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Emine Dzhaparova, who is in India on a four-day visit from Sunday, will try to gauge the mood of the Indian leadership on inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the G20 summit to be held in New Delhi in September.
She will also call on India to lend its voice to the international call for peace and bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.
This is the first visit of a leader from Kyiv to Delhi since the Ukraine war began in February 2021.
India has the current presidency of the G20, which includes the world’s developed and developing economies but not Ukraine.
Dzhaparova is likely to extend an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Ukraine. Modi has spoken to Zelensky a number of times over the phone but not visited the country.
She will be in Delhi at a time when another controversial issue — the leaked trove of Pentagon documents, is in the public domain.
The documents reveal how deeply Russia’s security and intelligence services have been penetrated by the United States, allowing Washington to warn Ukraine about planned strikes and provide an assessment of the strength of Moscow’s war machinery.
The leak also reveals America’s assessment of the Ukrainian military, which is in dire straits.
Dzhaparova will hold talks with Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, on bilateral, regional, and global issues of mutual interest.
Dzhaparova will also call on Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture, Meenakshi Lekhi, and meet Deputy National Security Adviser Vikram Misri.
It is interesting that Ukraine has decided to send the junior minister to India and not the Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba. But that may be because Kuleba is preoccupied with his diplomatic engagement with US and European leaders.
The Indian Prime Minister has spoken a number of times to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Zelensky, since the war began two years back.
From the early days of the war, India stressed on the cessation of violence and urged the warring parties to resume negotiations to resolve their outstanding disputes. But despite widespread pressure from the United States-led western bloc, India has refused to condemn Russia for the invasion.
Since the armed conflict began, Zelensky has used all the international forums to criticise Russia and seek its isolation. America and Europe have strongly rallied behind Ukraine and encouraged organisers of regional and global groupings to provide their platform to the Ukrainian President to put pressure on Moscow.
Though India and other G20 members have not yet discussed the issue of Zelensky’s inclusion at the forthcoming summit, it is likely to turn into a hot-button topic in the coming days.
During its G20 presidency, Indonesia had faced immense pressure from the US and European countries not to invite Russia to the summit.
In order to ensure that the Bali summit was not a flop show with Russia boycotting it, Indonesia had accepted a compromise with the western bloc and allowed Zelensky to address the summit on video.
This had led Putin to stay away from the summit and though, courtesy diplomatic efforts from India and China, Indonesia finally managed to put out a joint statement, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, left the meeting early to register his displeasure at the forum being used to corner Moscow.
It is quite likely that in the coming weeks similar pressure will be mounted by the west on the Indian leadership to either invite Zelensky or allow him to address the gathering at the Delhi G20 summit remotely.
In a phone conversation with President Zelensky on October 4 last year, Modi said there can be “no military solution” and that India is ready to contribute to any peace efforts.
In a statement on the occasion of the Ukrainian minister’s visit, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India shares warm and friendly relations with Ukraine.
“Over the last 30 years of diplomatic relations, bilateral cooperation between the two countries has made significant progress in areas of trade, education, culture, and defence,” it said, and added that the visit will be an occasion to further mutual understanding and interests.
Reports suggest that the Ukrainian minister may ask for humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during the war. She may also ask for more pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.
The Indian leadership will keep a close watch on the message that comes out of Ukraine at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May. Often, the G7, a cohesive and assertive bloc within the G20, ensures that issues it wants to be highlighted are prominently included in discussions and statements of the G20.
An invitation to Zelensky to address the G20 virtually could be a compromise to ensure that the Delhi summit is not a failure due to strong differences between the anti-Russian western bloc and others.
What India says after meeting the Ukrainian minister will be parsed closely by observers in different countries to ascertain the disposition of one of Moscow’s oldest allies.