Modi in War-torn Ukraine on August 23

New Delhi: The government finally made the much-awaited announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Poland that will take place on August 21 and 22, followed by the “landmark and historic” visit to war-torn Ukraine on August 23. On Monday, India said the visit to Ukraine was “not a zero-sum game” and that it has “substantive and independent engagement with both Russia and Ukraine”. New Delhi also said it was “willing to provide all support and contribution to help find a peaceful solution” to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and also for Ukraine’s economic reconstruction. The conflict will figure in the talks between Prime Minister Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and is almost certainly expected to figure in the talks with the Polish leadership as well.

At a special media briefing on Monday evening, MEA secretary (west) Tanmaya Lal reiterated India’s position that a resolution to the conflict can “only be through dialogue and diplomacy”, which was “absolutely essential”, adding that any proposal for a lasting peace can only succeed if it was acceptable to both sides. He reiterated Mr Modi’s remark (in Moscow last month) that “a solution cannot be found on the battlefield” and his statement (two years ago) that this was “not a time for war”.

While India has time-tested strategic and defence ties with Russia, Mr Lal told reporters that defence cooperation would be one of the areas in bilateral ties to be discussed with Ukraine, apart from other aspects like economic ties, agriculture, health, pharma, and culture. He also detailed the aid consignments comprising materials such as medicines and power generators sent to Ukraine in the past two and a half years.

This will be the first such visit by Mr Modi to Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict and the first by an Indian Prime Minister to that country in more than three decades. Mr Modi had visited Russia just last month, which was also his first visit to Moscow since the war began between the two neighbours. The visit signifies that India continues to strike a delicate balance in its ties with both nations.

It may also be noted that every other world leader, who has visited Ukraine since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began nearly two and a half years ago, has entered the country from its western border through Poland. This will also be the first time in 45 years that an Indian Prime Minister will visit Poland. The MEA detailed the robust trade ties that India has with Poland. Mr Lal also pointed out that India and Poland had signed a defence cooperation pact over two decades ago in 2003 and that New Delhi had also recently “re-opened its defence wing” at the embassy in Poland’s capital Warsaw. The two nations also have strong historical ties dating back to the Second World War when two Indian erstwhile princely states -- Jamnagar (now in Gujarat) and Kolhapur (Maharashtra) -- had provided refuge to thousands of Polish women and children.

It may be recalled that Ukraine’s President had just last month termed the meeting between Mr Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “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”.

Mr Modi had in June this year met President Zelenskyy in a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in the Apulia region of Italy during which the Ukrainian President had raised the “possibility of exchanging experience in the use of new technologies in agriculture”, and also “spoke about the functioning of the Black Sea transport corridor which makes it possible to increase exports of sunflower oil to India and turnover of other categories of goods”.