Srujan Palkar
Ukraine’s ambassador to India, Oleksandr Polishchuk, caused a stir in the Indian press this week when he said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might visit India by the end of the year. Should it take place, the visit would follow Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv in August, and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July. A visit by Zelenskyy would be sure to capture a lot of attention, but to make substantive progress in developing Ukraine-India relations, the agenda will need to focus on commonalties and opportunities.
Zelenskyy’s statements to the press on August 23, just as Modi was leaving Ukraine, bode well for a future visit by the Ukrainian president to India. Zelenskyy said he wished to connect with India and wanted to know more about its people. But for Zelenskyy to build on Modi’s visit to strengthen his country’s relations with India, there are several factors that will be key to understanding the country and connecting with Indians.
Most importantly, India does not believe in the idea of “with us or against us.” From former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s policy of nonalignment to Modi’s all-alignment, India has a long foreign policy tradition of charting its own course, separate from geopolitical blocs. As Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar stated, “India is non-West and not anti-West.” India is unlikely to take the exact position Zelenskyy is asking for—whether being fully critical of Putin’s Russia or stopping the import of Russian oil.
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