'India ready to play active role': The big takeaways from PM Modi's Ukraine visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wrapped up his trip to Ukraine.

Modi became the first Indian prime minister to make a state visit to Ukraine since the two countries established relations over three decades ago.

Modi and Volodymyr Zelenskyy held wide-ranging talks at Mariinskyi Palace, the official residence of the Ukrainian President, paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at ‘Oasis of Peace’ park in Kyiv and honoured the memory of the children that have been killed by the Russia-Ukraine war at the Martyrologist Exposition on children at the National Museum of History of Ukraine.

Modi wrote on X, “My visit to Ukraine was historic. I came to this great nation with the aim of deepening India-Ukraine friendship. I had productive talks with President Zelenskyy. India firmly believes that peace must always prevail. I thank the Government and people of Ukraine for their hospitality.”

Let’s examine some takeways of PM Modi’s trip:

‘Never indifferent bystander’

Modi on Friday rebuffed the claim that India has taken a neutral position on the Ukraine war.

Modi said India had not been “neutral or an indifferent bystander” since the beginning of the conflict.

India was always on the side of peace, he added.

India has been taking flak from the United States and the West since the beginning of the war for not condemning Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine in February 2022.

While the West has imposed a number of sanctions on Moscow, India has sought to balance its relationship between the two.

New Delhi has sought to maintain its decades-old strategic relationship with Moscow – which also provides much of India’s military hardware.

Modi also expressed India’s willingness to play an active role to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine.

“I want to assure you that India is ready to play an active role in any efforts towards peace. If I can play any role in this personally, I will do that I want to assure you as a friend,” Modi said as per Indian Express.

“The road to resolution can only be found through dialogue and diplomacy. And we should move in that direction without wasting any time. Both sides should sit together to find a way out of this crisis,” Modi added.

Modi, since the beginning of the war, has repeatedly reiterated that diplomacy and dialogue is the only way to resolve the conflict.

Modi was criticised by some including Zelenskyy for his recent visit to Russia in July.

Modi’s trip to Russia – his first since 2019 and the beginning of the war in Ukraine – and his meeting with Putin came on the day that Russia’s missiles targeted various locations across Ukraine including a children’s hospital in Kyiv which left scores of people dead.

Zelenskyy had called the meeting as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts.”

“A Russian missile struck the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, targeting young cancer patients. Many were buried under the rubble,” Zelenskyy wrote on X at the time.

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” he said.

Modi during his trip to Russia, referring to the strike on the children’s hospital, called the killing of innocent children heart-wrenching and very painful.

“Let’s take war, any conflict or terrorist acts: any person who believes in humanity feels pain when people die, and especially when innocent children die. When we feel such pain, the heart simply explodes, and I had the opportunity to talk about these issues with you yesterday,” Modi told Putin.

‘India is not neutral’

Modi’s stance was echoed by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar – who hinted at India’s willingness to play peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine.

NDTV quoted Jaishankar as emphasizing “India’s willingness to contribute in all ways possible.”

“It is India’s view that the two sides need to engage with each other to find a solution,” Jaishankar added.

Jaishankar said Modi called for “practical engagement between all stakeholders to develop innovative solutions that will contribute towards peace.”

The Ukrainian side wanted continued involvement of India with the Global Peace summit, he said.

He called the talks very detailed, open and in many ways constructive.

Jaishankar said there was also a discussion on what could be effective ways of taking the discussions forward.

Jaishankar said the prime minister sought the president’s assessment both of the ground situation as well as the diplomatic scenario and Zelenskyy spoke on both issues.

“Much of the discussions between PM Modi and President Zelenskyy was with regard to the war in Ukraine. PM Modi reiterated India’s willingness to contribute in all possible ways to facilitate an early return of peace,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

“There have been a number of public positions taken by India and the prime minister in the subject… A little more than two years ago, he publicly said that this is not the era of war and underlined that dialogue and diplomacy are the key… Most recently he emphasised that solution will not come out of the battlefield, he added.

The external affairs minister said the two leaders reiterated their readiness to continue cooperation to uphold principles of international law such as respect for territorial integrity and protect the sovereignty of states.

MOUs, inviting Zelenskyy to India

Modi and Zelenskyy spoke about elevating the comprehensive partnership to a strategic partnership in the future.

New Delhi and Kyiv also signed a number of MOUs during the trip.

As per Business Today, India and Ukraine inked agreements to cooperate in the fields of agriculture, food industry, medicine, culture and humanitarian assistance.

Jaishankar said a significant part of discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Zelenskyy was devoted to bilateral relations.

There were discussions on trade, economic issues, defence, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, education, he said.

“PM arrived by a special train in the morning, he was received by the First Deputy Foreign Minister at the Kyiv railway station…In the discussion, a significant part of it was devoted to our bilateral relations. There was a discussion about trade, economic issues, defence, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, education” Jaishankar said.

Modi and Zelenskyy also tasked the India-Ukraine inter-governmental commission to specifically focus on rebuilding trade and economic relations.

“The leaders also tasked the Intergovernmental Commission, of which Minister Kuleba and I are the co-chairs, to specifically focus on rebuilding our trade and economic relations, which had gone down in recent times. And we certainly look forward to having an early meeting of that body, definitely by the end of this year,” ANI quoted Jaishankar as saying.

Jaishankar said Modi also invited Zelenskyy to visit India at a ‘mutually convenient’ time.

“…We hope President Zelenskyy too will visit India at his convenience well,” Jaishankar said.

India continues humanitarian assistance

India also continued its humanitarian efforts to help Ukraine – handing over medical support equipment worth 22 tonnes.

“Today, we handed over cubes containing medical support equipment to Ukraine,” Jaishankar said.

The equipment, known as the BHISHM Cube, is a state-of-the-art mobile hospital designed for rapid deployment in disaster zones.

The mobile hospital is made through packing all essential medicines and equipment in cubical boxes (15 inches each) in a well-organised manner, and arranged according to the types of injuries and medical issues that could be encountered in a war or natural disaster.

One cube, the officials said, has the ability to handle about 200 cases of diverse nature in emergency situations such as trauma, bleeding, burns, fractures, shock, apart from managing initial triage and classification.

It also has the ability to support basic surgeries and can also generate its own power and oxygen in limited amounts and duration, they added.

With inputs from agencies