Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks on during at the start of the second working session of the G20 Leaders' Summit at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on September 9, 2023. Photo: AFP
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reportedly scheduled to visit Ukraine on Friday, marking the first visit by an Indian leader since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began in February 2022.
While India is prepared to contribute to resolving the conflict, analysts said on Tuesday that Modi's visit, which aims to repair ties with the West and the US, is a largely symbolic gesture and unlikely to significantly advance peace talks.
Modi will complete a two-day visit to Poland from Wednesday and thereafter he will travel to Ukraine, according to India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
This will be the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Ukraine after the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992, India's MEA said in a release on Monday. The MEA announced that Modi's "landmark visit to Ukraine will help further consolidation and expansion of bilateral ties."
Shortly after Modi's return from a visit to Russia in July, India proposed a visit to Ukraine in an effort to balance its relations between the US and Russia, Liu Zongyi, secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Modi's visit to Russia had sparked dissatisfaction among several Western countries, particularly the US. By Modi's visiting Ukraine, India aims to repair its relations with the West while maintaining a delicate balance between the US and Russia, Liu said.
However, the proposal to visit Ukraine was made before the conflict in Russia's Kursk region, and with the ongoing clashes now a daily occurrence, India finds itself in a dilemma, said Liu. He noted that Modi's visit to Ukraine is merely a gesture and will not have a substantial impact on the current situation.
Although India's international status has risen in recent years, its influence remains largely confined to South Asia. Mediation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict typically involves either major powers facilitating negotiations or smaller nations collectively voicing concerns through multilateral channels, Cui Heng, a research fellow with the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the Global Times.
For India, the lack of collective support and limited resources it can dedicate to global issues like the Russia-Ukraine conflict make its role in mediation relatively limited, Cui said.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Monday that Moscow was not ready to hold peace talks for now given Kiev's attack on Russia's Kursk region, but that Russia was not withdrawing its earlier peace proposals, Reuters reported.
