For the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, a minister from the country will travel to India.
The visit will take place next week, and kyiv hopes to get the Ukrainian president to speak at the G20 summit in September.
The First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Emine Dzhaparova, will arrive on Monday April 10 on a working visit to meet with Indian government officials. He will also give a lecture on the global nature of the Ukraine war at the Foreign Ministry think-tank, the Indian Council of World Affairs, on April 11.
Dzhaparova, the oldest of Ukraine’s five deputy foreign ministers, will be the first kyiv official to visit India since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in India for the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting and also spoke at the iconic Raisina Dialogue of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Ukrainian minister’s visit is significant as it comes before India hosts the G20 leaders’ summit in September.
Last year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo traveled to both Moscow and kyiv. He had also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak virtually at the G20 summit in Bali.
The West has constantly pressured India to invite the Ukrainian president as well. So far, New Delhi has not made any decision.
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It is believed that Dzhaparova, a former journalist, will also suggest to her Indian interlocutors that they invite Zelensky. She in turn, she would also carry an invitation for Prime Minister Modi to visit Ukraine.
The visit will take place next week, and kyiv hopes to get the Ukrainian president to speak at the G20 summit in September.
India has taken a neutral position in the Ukraine war and has not publicly criticized Russia for the invasion. India has also abstained on all resolutions passed against Russia in various UN bodies, including the General Assembly. The latest was the one approved by the UN Human Rights Council on April 4, which extended the mandate of the commission of inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by Russia for one year.
In December 2022, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba dismissed as “morally inappropriate” India’s increased purchases of Russian crude. The criticism of him came after Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar defended Russian crude purchases on the grounds that European imports dwarfed Indian ones.
Article republished from The Wire as part of an agreement between both parties to share content. Link to the original article:https://thewire.in/diplomacy/volodymyr-zelensky-ukraine-emine-dzhaparova-india-visit
