PM Modi In Kyiv: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Ukraine on Friday, just weeks after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The visit is significant because Kyiv and some Western capitals had reacted sharply to Mr Modi’s visit to the Russian capital in July.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was particularly critical, saying he was “disappointed to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hugs the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow”.
Balancing India’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war will be at the top of the agenda for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he arrives by train in Kyiv on Friday morning, in the first such high-level visit from India since the war began in 2022. The country’s famed non-alignment approach to geopolitics has served it well for decades.
While making the trip, six weeks after he visited Moscow and met with President Vladimir Putin is a part of that process, experts believe the outcomes of the visit will also be weighed carefully, given Ukraine’s “disappointments” with India’s position in the past.
In particular, India’s position on the war in Ukraine, Mr. Modi’s response to Ukraine’s requests for reconstruction and equipment supplies, as well as a possible Indian role in ending the conflict and starting a peace process will be watched most closely, both in Moscow and in Washington. PM Modi is one of very few leaders to have personally visited both Kyiv and Moscow during the war ( apart from leaders of Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Guinea-Bissau and Hungary).
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