Emine Dzhaparova, Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, has arrived in India for a four-day visit, the first visit by a Ukrainian minister since the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.
Dzhaparova is expected to hold talks with Indian Foreign Ministry officials, including Meenakshi Lekhi, the foreign minister and culture minister. She will also meet Deputy National Security Adviser Vikram Misri.
What’s on the agenda?
Dzhaparova, a Crimean Tatar Muslim, is expected to meet with Foreign Ministry delegates to discuss the current situation in Ukraine and global issues of mutual concern, the Indian government said.
India’s Hindu newspaper reported that Dzhaparova would call on India to send a “strong message of peace” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will visit India in July for a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. He will return in September for a G20 summit.
Happy to visit 🇮🇳 – the land that has produced many sages, saints and gurus. Today, #India wants to be the Vishwaguru, the global teacher and referee. In our case we have a very clear picture: aggressor against innocent victim. Support🇺🇦 is the only right choice for real Vishwaguru.
— Emine Dzheppar (@EmineDzheppar) April 10, 2023
India’s Council of World Affairs, a New Delhi-based think tank, said on Twitter that Dzhaparova would also deliver a talk on Tuesday entitled Russia’s War in Ukraine: Why the World Should Care.
Rajeswari Rajagopalan – the director of the Center for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi – said she believes India will use the visit to discuss issues such as “food security, energy security and a whole host of fertilizer shortages”. .
The war in Ukraine has had a major impact on global supply chains and international food and fertilizer trade, which have disproportionately affected the South. Both Ukraine and Russia are leading suppliers of key food commodities, such as wheat, maize and sunflower oil, and Russia is also one of the world’s top fertilizer exporters.
“India is also promoting itself as the voice of the Global South, so it is conveying the message for a large number of countries that may be facing certain difficulties caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Rajagopalan said.
Energy infrastructure
The Hindu newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as saying Ukraine has asked for more humanitarian aid from India, including medicines, medical equipment and energy equipment to repair power infrastructure damaged during the war.
In October, Russia began an attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, hitting thermal and hydroelectric power stations and the power grid. The attacks damaged about 60 percent of Ukraine’s power plants and more than 40 percent of its high-voltage grid infrastructure. As a result, the Ukrainians experienced continuous blackouts from October to February.
Warmer weather and efficient repairs have dramatically improved the situation in recent months. As a result, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko recently authorized energy exports after the system produced additional capacity for nearly two months.
However, power transmission system operator Ukrenergo has warned of complacency, and Ukraine’s power companies are now looking to stock up on equipment in view of next winter’s expected attacks.
“There are companies in India that manufacture transformers,” said Antonina Antonsha, a spokeswoman for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy supplier. She said it can be a long process that could take nine to 12 months.
India’s stance on the war in Ukraine: a diplomatic balancing act
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, India has taken a non-aligned approach to the war, as it appears to maintain good diplomatic ties with both the West and Russia.
“India is trying to play neutral,” Rajagopalan said. “India received the Russian foreign minister, [Sergey] Lavrov, a few months ago, and now we receive the Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister.”
India has had a close relationship and close defense ties with Russia for decades. Moscow is India’s largest arms supplier. After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, New Delhi increased its Russian oil imports at reduced prices. In December, India imported 1.2 million barrels of Russian crude oil, 33 times more than a year earlier.
In September, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin and described the friendship between their countries as “unbreakable”. Two months later, Indian diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reiterated Modi on a visit to Moscow, calling the relationship between the countries “stable and time-tested”.
India has regularly abstained from voting on UN resolutions condemning the war in Ukraine. But it has also indirectly expressed some concern about Russia’s actions, stressing the importance of the UN Charter, international law and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
In September, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan, Modi told Putin, “I know that the current era is not an era of war, and I have spoken with you on the phone about this.”
The Indian government has also sought an open channel of communication with the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the outbreak of war.
In October, Modi told Zelenskyy in a telephone conversation that there could be “no military solution” to the war in Ukraine.
Three months later, Zelenskyy said he sought India’s help in implementing a “peace formula” in another conversation with India’s prime minister.
Is Russia still a reliable partner for India?
Russia and India have enjoyed mutually beneficial relations since the Cold War. However, Rajagopalan said that since it invaded Ukraine, “Russia has become more of a liability than a partner.”
She points to the recent turn from Russia to China, marked by President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow at the end of March. India’s relationship with China has deteriorated since 2020 when fighting broke out between Indian and Chinese soldiers along their land border in the Ladakh region.
Russia’s trade with China in the Chinese yuan has soared 80 times higher since the start of the war.
“India is also trying to send a message to Russia that India is getting tired of its partnership with the Chinese and the recent delays of military platforms,” Rajagopalan said.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) announced this in March Russia could not honor its arms deliveries to India because of the war in Ukraine.
“The MiG-29 fighter jets and Sukhoi platforms were due to be delivered this year but have been delayed, and the IAF will suffer significantly from those delays,” Rajagopalan said.