India and Ukraine agree to strengthen bilateral relations to pre-war levels, discuss peace plan

India and Ukraine have agreed to restore trade and cooperation to levels before Russia’s invasion, as Kyiv seeks to garner support for its peace plan with a historical ally of Moscow, the foreign ministers of India and Ukraine said on Friday after the meeting.

The meeting between EAM Jaishankar and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba focused on fostering constructive dialogue and strengthening bilateral relations including in areas such as trade and investment, science and technology, defence, agriculture, health, culture and education.

Pleased to co-chair the review meeting of our Inter-Governmental Commission with FM @DmytroKuleba of Ukraine.

Noted the importance of further strengthening cooperation in all domains. Our immediate goal is to get trade back to earlier levels.

Perspectives on trade, health,… pic.twitter.com/2nJ7RQiERN

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 29, 2024

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Ministry of External Affairs said “Both Ministers also held a separate discussion on matters related to the India- Ukraine Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Industrial and Cultural Cooperation and its working groups. Both sides agreed to work towards holding the 7th IGC meeting later this year.

“The exchange of views on regional and global matters involved a comprehensive discussion on the ongoing conflict and efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement. Regular interactions at various levels and meetings of bilateral mechanisms have contributed to the strong and multifaceted partnership that exists between India and Ukraine,” it added in a statement.

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made the first official visit to India by a top Kyiv official since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. This visit comes ahead of a potential international summit in the coming months aimed at advancing Ukraine’s peace plan. Historically, New Delhi has maintained close economic and defence relations with Moscow and has refrained from publicly criticizing Russia for its actions in Ukraine. Instead, India has called for the resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy while significantly increasing its purchases of affordable Russian oil to record levels.

“We paid specific attention to the peace formula and next steps on the path of its implementation,” Kuleba posted on X after talks with his counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

“We … agreed to restore the level of cooperation between our countries that existed prior to the full-scale war launched by Russia, as well as identify new promising projects to take our relations to the next level,” Kuleba said.

Jaishankar said that “our immediate goal is to get trade back to earlier levels”.

Ukraine hopes to hold a summit, without Russian participation, to advance a peace formula that calls among other things for the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.

Russia has dismissed the initiative as a non-starter.

In newspaper interviews ahead of his talks, Kuleba said Ukraine was not against cooperation between India and Russia, but urged New Delhi to stand by Kyiv, saying India’s close ties with Russia were based on a Soviet legacy that was evaporating.

“Our job is to convey a simple message to New Delhi,” he told the Times of India. “When you decide to engage with Russia, please know the red line for Ukraine is financing Russia’s war machine.”

India had much to gain, he told the Financial Times, from expanding trade and technology ties with Ukraine, which was interested in importing heavy machinery.

Kuleba offered Indian companies a role in postwar reconstruction.

With inputs from agencies.