Ukraine looks to India for better understanding

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New Delhi, April 9

Five months after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, Kyiv has dispatched its junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova for the first face-to-face talks between the Foreign Offices since then.

A major difference is that while Jaishankar and Kuleba met on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh, Dzhaparova is on a standalone “official” visit to India which began on Sunday. She is expected to seek more aid from India, possibly invite PM Narendra Modi to Ukraine and seek to involve India with the Crimea Platform, an association of about 60 countries and international organisations dedicated to wresting the region from Russian occupation for the last nine years, said sources.

India is, however, not sticking strictly to protocol during her visit. There are no audiences scheduled as yet with Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval or the Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. Instead, the Ukrainian Minister will meet with MEA’s Secretary (West) Sanjay Verma, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi and meet Deputy NSA Vikram Misri. She will also deliver a talk on “Russia’s War in Ukraine: Why The World Should Care” at the Indian Council of World Affairs on Tuesday.

Dzhaparova will also speak with her interlocutors on the “Crimea Platform” from which India has maintained a distance. Its first “Black Sea Security Conference” will be held jointly with Romania on April 12 and 13 in Bucharest. The event is a part of the International Crimea Platform, “a mechanism aimed at the de-occupation of Crimea, restoration of the Black Sea, European, and global security”.

However, India is wary as the Platform also takes an adverse stand against countries it sees as aligned with Russia. The Platform has compared Russia’s occupation of Crimea with Iran’s control over the three islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, which it says belongs to the UAE.

“The visit will be an occasion to build up mutual understanding and interests,” said an MEA statement.

Crimea Platform

• Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova is expected to seek more aid, assistance from India
• She may press for India’s involvement in Crimea Platform, an association dedicated to wresting occupied areas from Russia